Social Enterprise News

Welcome to the new 2021 QSEC Board of Directors.

We're so grateful you have stepped up and taken the helm.  We can't wait to work with you.

Read the profiles of our new Board members here.

Meet the new Board

Last night at the AGM, we farewelled Emma-Kate Rose as QSEC president for the past three years and Welcomed one of QSEC's founding members, Richard Warner into the chair. 

Thanks to EK's leadership, QSEC has grown from strength to strength, and we thank her and our whole team for their vision and guidance. 
We also farewelled Jerome Walker as Secretary and welcome new board members Dr Crystal Willams and Anne-Marie Walton. We are incredibly grateful to our current board members who return to serve: David Toohey as treasurer, Gaala Watson as Vice President and Tony Sharp. 

There will be an annual report circulated to members in coming days and a full list of the new board.

Thanks to all members who participated.

The inaugural Social Enterprise Summit for Northern Australia (SESNA) 2020 digital event was held on Friday 6 November, bringing over 100 social enterprises and advocates together to discuss the challenges and opportunities emerging in Far North Queensland. QSEC was one of the proud sponsors and the events was so successful that the networks involved Social Enterprise of the Tropics, Impact North and StartUp & Innovation Tablelands have decided to make it a regular event. 
 

You can now listen to the recordings for the sessions on the SESNA website https://www.sesna.com.au/sesna2020

The Reset and Recovery with Impact program kicked off in Far North Queensland on  23 & 24 November, as we launched our custom designed workshops to help social enterprises reset their social enterprises. Since then we have rolled out the workshop programs in Toowoomba and most recently Rockhampton to over 40 enterprises and impact businesses to huge acclaim. The digital toolkits for these sessions are being designed for the participants to use in the next few weeks, and then will be added to the new QSEC portal in time. We will be following up these amazing RESET sessions with the Recovery component with CQUni, which will help to scope regional opportunities in each area. 
 

Many thanks to our social enterprise eco-system supporters; 

• Social Scaffolding
• Social Traders
• CQUni
• Yunus Centre (Griffith University)
• SENT, Darling Downs and the Central and Western Qld networks and
• Activators Dr. Crystal Williams, Natalia Muszkat, Charmaine Tolhurst, Crystal Robsen and Angharad Lubbock.

Check out the latest monthly newsletter full of QSEC, sector and member news.

READ NEWSLETTER

Big news from Queensland Government

2 December 2020

In the Palaszczuk Government budget handed down today there is significant investment in small business.

The $140 million Big Plans for Small Business policy will facilitate private investment in the small business sector, it includes:

• An initial $100 million Business Investment Fund with a focus on small businesses with significant potential for growth and job creation. 
• $30 million of investment to increase skills and capability with a focus on small business grants in priority industry sectors, and 
• $10 million of investment to make it easier to do business including:
  • Permanent Small Business Commissioner
  • Reinvigorating the Small Business Advisory Council.

$40.5 million 'Making it in Queensland' Strategy (over 5 years)
$500 million Renewable energy fund
$200 million investment in future skills.

You can  find more information about this year’s Budget at www.budget.qld.gov.au

Check out this whopper of info regarding everything social enterprise

The Queensland State election is set to be held 31 October. We are calling for all social enterprises to leave a lasting impression of the POSITIVE IMPACT social enterprises have on their communities!

"We Need YOU!”

1. Download our Election pitch pack
2. Contact your local representative AND the candidates for the upcoming election.  FIND YOUR CANDIDATE HERE
3.  Invite them to see your business and the impact you create
4. Show them the pitch pack and the great work that social enterprises do in your community.
5. Get a photo of the candidate and your business and share on social media #socialenterprise #supportsocial @qsocent

This is going to be a very closely fought election, and we want to demonstrate to all parties the importance of social enterprises and why each candidate needs to get behind businesses that truly will unite and recover Queensland!

Election Pitch Pack

DOWNLOAD HERE: Social Enterprise QLD ELECTION 2020

You can also join us for a kitchen table chat Monday 12 October 6:30pm with sector champions and leaders.