Awards For Excellence in   Community Business Partnerships 2007 

VIC Small Business Award

Amello, St Kilda Sea Baths with the St Kilda Youth Service

The Hospitality Employment and Training (HEAT) program is a dynamic employment training program administered by St Kilda Youth Service, in collaboration with local business and community organisations (Amello Restaurant, Inner Eastern Local Learning and Employment Network (IELLEN), City of Port Phillip (CoPP), Williams Angliss Institute of TAFE (WAI) and Victoria Police.

The partnership provides vocational skills in the hospitality field at no cost for 16 to 20 year olds, many of whom are experiencing personal and/or family problems. They acquire a formal qualification (certificate) and work experience, and have post-program advice and referral/advocacy services made available to them. Benefits include improved self-esteem and optimism about the future.

VIC Small Business Encouragement Award – Joint Winners

Holmesglen International Training Services Pty Ltd (HITS) with Child with Family Care Network (now trading as Bestchance Child Family Care)

The two partner organisations, which have collaborated successfully in the past, joined forces to build the Bestchance Children’s Centre – a large, state-of-the art centre providing integrated early childhood services to over 250 children each week.

Holmesglen International Training Services’ senior management assisted in raising funds for the project from other corporations in the area. HITS’ involvement also brought forth contributions of time and services from other businesses (e.g. electrical, plumbing and locksmithing). They contribute considerable planning, project management and building supervision skills. The contribution of apprentices working for experience (not salaries) would not have been possible without HITS’ involvement.

Bestchance benefited from having a partner with a proven record of success in the building industry. Bestchance management, staff and volunteers were thus able to maintain their focus on their core activities while the construction project proceeded. Thanks to HITS’ links with a local TAFE, one wing of the new Children' Centre was built by young trade apprentices, with substantial (indeed, project-critical) budget savings.

The community has acquired a state-of-the-art children's centre accommodating a number of integrated and accessible specialist and mainstream services including childcare, kindergarten, supported playgroups, early childhood intervention for children with developmental delays, a home visiting service for socially isolated mothers and parenting programs. The Centre’s emphasis on preventive support programs is expected to build "stronger children, stronger families and a stronger community". The community will also benefit from the substantial involvement of young apprentices.

Complete Shopfitters with Waverly Industries Ltd

In February 2006, Waverly Industries Ltd, a “Supported Employment Business Service Provider” employing 192 people with intellectual disabilities and specialising in the packaging, assembly and manufacturing industries, commenced a business partnership with Complete Shopfitters, a large Melbourne firm providing design and installation of shop fittings for many large national retailers.

In the first year of operation of the partnership, Waverley Industries have been able to create eight full-time employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities in the Monash community. Their enhanced reputation (as a result of the partnership) has attracted new business from several large shop fitting enterprises and may enable them to create further job opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.

Complete Shopfitters are receiving quality products, with no reports of faulty workmanship. Work has been delivered ahead of scheduled delivery dates. Waverley Industries, having assumed responsibility for ordering materials, allows Complete Shopfitters to focus entirely on the installation of finished products. This partnership exemplifies the ways in which mainstream commercial enterprises may harness the skills, reliability and work ethic of organisations employing people with disabilities.

VIC Medium Business Encouragement Award – Joint Winners

Dixon Appointments with the Victorian Volunteers Resource Centres’ Network (the Network)

This partnership is targeted towards providing practical assistance to further the aims and values of volunteering across Victoria. This is done by drawing on the business skills and facilities of Dixon Appointments and the subject matter expertise within the Network.

Dixon Appointments contributes staff services, a venue for meetings, administrative support, training and skills sharing to the partnership. It also provides advice and support on staff recruitment, interview skills training and an increased profile via the web and other media. In addition, it enables wider networking opportunities for the volunteers within the professional business community.

The Network contributes volunteers, facilitates networking opportunities within the not-for-profit sector and furnishes referrals to the business partner for skills development and placement. Its individual members have links to the business partner on their web sites and the network as a whole is happy to have the business partner refer to the partnership in its business dealings. The business partner benefits in several ways. It is able to contribute to the community at large in a structured fashion while also raising its standing within the volunteer networks’ communities. The partnership has also benefited the staff at Dixon Appointments. They are able to take part in an activity that has value beyond the commercial while taking pride in the partnership’s achievements. In addition, staff morale has improved along with the attraction and retention of these valued personnel.

Whitehorse Division of General Practice and HARP (Eastern Hospital Admission Risk Program)

The Whitehorse Division of General Practice is a local network of GPs. This

network has responded to the current shortage of allied health support for chronic

illnesses, such as asthma and diabetes, by developing a sustainable business

model to deliver quality care in a general practice setting. It has established 25 new

health services within general practices: 15 Asthma and Respiratory clinics and 10

Diabetes clinics.

The Whitehorse Division of General Practice contributed the strategic planning skills necessary for setting up such programs, the expertise of its staff and the guidance of its reference groups and sub-committees toward the continued improvement of the programs.

It has also provided the use of its premises, staff, accounting and clinical resources, as well as expertise in marketing and risk management.

The Eastern HARP contributed funding for the development of the new programs. The business partner in this relationship is represented by the individual doctors in whose practices the clinics were developed. They brought to the relationship a willingness to embrace new ways of delivering health care despite the risk of failure that these changes might have brought about.

The community organisation believes that the prime benefit from the partnership is

the potential reduction in hospital admissions related to these chronic diseases.

The program has created a peer support base for clinical nurse specialist educators in the areas of Asthma, Respiratory diseases and Diabetes. In addition, the individual doctors have benefited through assistance to develop or improve electronic patient records, disease registers and patient recall systems.

Overall, this is a partnership that works for better health outcomes for the community as a whole.

VIC Large Business Award

ANZ Bank with Brotherhood of St Laurence

ANZ Bank has partnered with the Brotherhood of St Laurence to establish services for the financially disadvantaged. Initially they developed the Saver Plus program and more recently piloted a new program, the Progress Loans.

The Brotherhood had identified that people on low incomes were able to repay small loans but an interest-free program was unsustainable as it required fundraising for operational costs. It partnered again with ANZ to provide the Progress Loan which offers people on low incomes access to loans of between $500 and $3000 to pay for household goods, self-development, medical and car expenses.

ANZ contributes expertise in marketing strategies to assist with promoting the product, assessing credit-worthiness, maintaining the loan accounts and funding all loans until they are repaid, as well as covering costs e.g. marketing, training and loan officer salaries.

The Brotherhood gains from an increased capacity by being able to replicate a model of finance in other locations that better meets the needs of its client group and thus an ability to reallocate funds.

This is a new extension to a sustainable, well thought-out partnership that has definable outcomes for disadvantaged people.

ANZ with the Brotherhood of St Laurence are 2007 national finalists. A more extended description of the partnership is available in the national finalists section of this publication.

VIC Large Business Encouragement Award

BP Australia with Kids Under Cover Inc

Kids Under Cover (KUC) raises funds to build houses and demountable bungalows for homeless and at-risk young people throughout Victoria and provides scholarships to eligible youth. The team at BP was seeking ways to become more socially responsible as a corporate group and in researching charities was made aware of KUC. This is largely a staff initiative supported by BP.

KUC contributes to the partnership by providing opportunities for BP and its staff to be involved in projects that have a direct impact on the community. KUC offers a place for BP staff to attend events and meet other parties to extend their networks. This partnership was well planned to match needs of both parties. BP was proactively seeking an avenue to contribute and KUC gives them a solid vehicle of meeting this aspiration. Homelessness among the 12 to 24 age groups is growing alarmingly - KUC is keeping kids off the street in safe secure supported accommodation.

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