Bec's blogs

Let's be honest

by Bec on 10 December 2011

By Rebecca Scott

 

lets be honest banner Being the CEO of a start-up isn’t glamorous at all. Sure you get to meet some interesting people or go to the odd event, but most of all it’s just hard work. Unrelenting hard work. First there’s conceptualising things. And then trying to find the money to build what you’ve conceptualised. And then actually building what you’ve conceptualised. And then testing and running what you’ve built to see if you conceptualised right in the first place. Then continuing to look for more money to keep what you’ve built operating. And then undertaking the audits on the money you’ve found. And then writing the reports to accompany the audits to the people who have given you the money......

.....but every now and then in the midst of all of this activity you get an extraordinary reminder of why you decided to conceptualise the organisation in the first place. I had one of these moments last week whilst we were recruiting Class 5.

Kate (STREAT’s psych): Who would support you and be proud of you if you achieved in the STREAT program?

Young woman: No one. When your parents are junkies everyone assumes that you can't ever achieve anything either.

Kate: You've spoken earlier about your Aunty. Surely she'd be proud of you?

Young woman: She loves me and she's always been there. But she always tells me that it's OK if I can't reach my goals. It's like she's always preparing me for

the worst, not the best. I guess she’s been trying to protect me.

Kate: What about you? Do you think you can achieve in the program?

Young woman: Yes, I can do it. And I'll be so proud of me when I do.

Such moments can take your breath away. Or move you to tears. Luckily they can stay with you for days or weeks or years even. They’re the things that motivate me – and the rest of the STREAT team – to get up tomorrow. And the next day. And the one after that.

Unfortunately I can’t share all such moments with you. I can, however, tell you that your help – no matter how small or insignificant you feel it is – makes such opportunities possible for our youth. My sincerest thanks for this.

Rebecca Scott

What's the difference between social enterprise and other organisations doing great stuff?

by Bec on 20 September 2010

Recently Hildy Gottleib on her ‘Creating the Future’ blog was struggling with what social entrepreneurship is and also stated ‘I am struggling to find what the difference is between a social entrepreneur venture and every other organization working to create a better world.’ The responses she received were varied and a good read. I thought I’d add an Australian flavour to the responses.

In 2009 the Australian Centre for Nonprofit Studies and Social Traders had a stab at defining social enterprise, and the answer works well for STREAT, and partially captures why as the organisation’s founder I call myself a social entrepreneur.

Here’s their definition of a social enterprise, along with my response…

a. Are led by an economic, social, cultural, or environmental mission for public or community benefit (STREAT’s mission is to provide homeless youth with independence and a future by providing social support and training and employment in the hospitality industry)
b. Trade to fulfill their mission (our street cafes have the dual purpose of generating income by competing in the open market and also providing the site for training and employment of our youth)
c. Derive a substantial portion of their income from trade (we’re aiming for full financial sustainability through our own earned income by the end of our third year of operating - we’re in year 1 and tracking pretty well against this goal. Our second site opened last week so wish us luck!)
d. Reinvest the majority of their profit/surplus in the fulfilment of their mission (we reinvest 100% of profit).

My guess is that most non-profits could easily tick off point a, though many couldn’t tick off b, c, or d. Now of course there’s a bunch of non-profits who are earning some income, but this isn’t their main or only source of income and they will continue to rely heavily on other income sources to fulfil their missions (eg like government grants, philanthropic money, fundraising activities).

On the other hand, most for-profits could easily tick off point b and c. Some would tick off a, and of course most would reinvest a percentage of their profit back into their business (point d), but most would distributing their profits back to the owners or shareholders of the business.

But of course things aren’t quite this simplistic.

Kids in the kitchen

by Bec on 15 July 2010

You may have seen the small mention of STREAT in The Age’s Epicure yesterday. The article mentioned how we source our food from Original Foods—and proudly so, because they’re a sustainable catering company who uses local, seasonal and organic produce.

But not all of our food comes from Original Foods. What the article didn’t have space to tell you is that not all of our food is sourced through them. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays our youth are in the kitchen with training chef Janis Munro, cooking up batches of food for the following week. Last week was Spicy Thai pumpkin soup, and tomato and vegetable soup—big favourites if you’ve been to our food carts. Here’s a few pics of our trainees hard at work last week in the kitchen—and what they had to say about their cook-up.

My new pair of kicks

by Bec on 30 June 2010

Fortunately my corporate business suits have been getting moth balled for quite some time now and my usual work attire is a STREAT t-shirt, pair of torn jeans and some old kicks. I’ve worn this one particular pair of sneakers throughout my journey building STREAT. In fact I bought them for 20 bucks in New York when I was overseas checking out some other social enterprises in late 2008.  About six months ago the sole started totally giving out. And after they got soaked in the huge hailstorm a couple of months ago they’ve just been hanging in there. Last week they really died.

Well I’m proud to say they’ve now been replaced by my new pair of Etiko fair-trade, organic cotton sneakers I’d been eyeing off for ages. As the box said ‘I’m your new pair of fair trade, ethically made, earth lovin’, world changing, dance floor re-arranging Etiko sneakers.’ I haven’t laid down any moves on the dance floor with them (yet) but I did capture their first outing with me and Will, my two year old son.  Can’t wait to get them dirty on the streets of Melbourne!

Sleeping rough is rough in winter

by Bec on 23 June 2010

One of the things that struck me most when I visited Montreal and Toronto in December 1999 was how many homeless people there were on the streets. It was the middle of winter and the temperature plummeted between -10C to -20C each night. I couldn’t conceive that there were people lying directly over the grates on the snow-covered pavement in the cities to keep warm from the rising steam. Chris, the friend I was staying with, said most nights at least one person would be found dead on the grates after they got damp and froze to death.

Whilst Melbourne doesn’t get as cold as Canada, we still have thousands sleeping rough on our icy cold winter nights. Last Thursday night a bunch of Melbourne CEOs joined them as part of Vinnie’s CEO Sleepout. I was supposed to be amongst them but pulled out at the last minute because I caught the cold that’s been doing the rounds of our office. After much deliberating I made the decision that it wasn’t worth getting pneumonia and potentially jeopardising STREAT’s own work trying to stop homelessness. As I climbed into bed on Thursday night I was acutely aware that thousands in Australia don’t have the luxury of this choice.