Community Economic Development Program

The Board has extended its “grass roots” assistance program to include community based economic development projects, and is participating in a number of projects, including the Liverpool Youth Jobs project and the Catering Social Enterprise project.

Liverpool Youth Jobs
This project was developed to respond to the increased opportunity in the building and construction activity in the Liverpool Government Area by facilitating greater access for local young people to employment in this industry.

As with many industries the Building and Construction Industry has been experiencing a skills shortage and a decrease in traineeships and apprenticeships commenced. The project has successfully established a controlled vacancy identification and application process with the key agencies and programs being used to implement these processes. This process has helped identify key industry issues, and supported the link with training organisations to ensure the smooth transition of young people into apprenticeships and traineeships.

Blue Mountains Artists Network
The Blue Mountains Artist Network Growth project will develop commercial opportunities for arts practitioners from the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains region via the Blue Mountains Artist Network (BMAN), a not-for-profit organisation recognised as the peak arts body of the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains Artist Network Growth project aims to promote ‘the arts’ as a key industry sector in conjunction with the strength of business tourism in the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains region through a strategy to develop the operational capacity and structure of BMAN and an enhanced regional and co-operative promotion of arts practitioners.

The project aims to:
•Enhance and attract a wider membership base of arts practitioners in the Blue Mountains region.
•Establish links with arts and non-arts, boost relationships with philanthropic organisations and corporate organisations in order to strengthen economic sustainability and independence of arts practitioners in the Blue Mountains region.
•Develop business and corporate partnerships with a range of commercial outlets in the region, in Sydney and internationally, thus increasing the commercial value and opportunities with Blue Mountains arts practitioners artwork.
•Establish an electronic Artists Studio Trail website (linked Blue Mountains Artist Network website) to build promote the activities of the Blue Mountains arts practitioners to the local, Sydney, state, national and international communities.

Catering Social Enterprise
The Auburn Social Enterprise project aims to create sustainable employment pathways for highly disadvantaged migrant/refugee women from the Auburn local government area.

The Auburn Social Enterprise project will
•Establish the infrastructure for an on-the-job training venue cum commercial catering enterprise in Auburn.
•Select and train 4 African women in Cert II Hospitality provide employment for the original 4 trainees.
•Build the capacity of the African women to manage the social enterprise as a economically viable business and carry out pre-employment training and mentoring for other disadvantaged migrants after completion of the training.
•Contribute in reducing unemployment rates by building the skills of other highly disadvantaged migrants/refugees in the area, which will improve their access to employment opportunities.
•Act as a catalyst to others in the community to become more entrepreneurial.

By providing a sustainable employment pathway for highly disadvantaged clients who are receiving government benefits, the project will contribute towards reducing long-term dependency on the social welfare system.

Airds Slingshot Program
The Slingshot program will assist young disadvantaged people in Airds, between the ages of 18 and 24, by providing the opportunity to learn relevant skills and to explore the opportunities present by self-employment. The focus of the program is primarily to provide participants access to self-employment and/or the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) to establish their own business. Other positive outcomes include employment, further education and training, and the development of individual pathway plans for all participants.

Slingshot performs a broader transition support role for young people, ensuring individual’s needs are met through an intensive and holistic approach. Limited employment opportunities for young people directly impact on the Australian labour market, which does not benefit from the range of skills and aptitudes that young people have to offer. There is support for young people to enter the workplace and become self-employer through the NEIS program, however the NEIS program does not specifically focus on the particular needs and potential of the 18-24 year age group. Slingshot is a response to this gap in services for young disadvantaged youth, specifically targeting the needs of unemployment young people. For young people, especially those not in positive education, training or work situations, Slingshot provides, through concrete support and training, the skills, knowledge and networks to enable them to develop pathways to self-employment and/or other options.

The Slingshot project has been successfully in place now since April 2007 when the Airds slingshot Co-ordinator was appointed to:

• Provide participants with the skills and outlook to take advantage of changed labour markets in which employment is characterised by much greater uncertainty than in the past;
• Empower young people through developing and improving their self-esteem and confidence;
• Provide the skills and support to enable participants to become motivated actors in the labour market;
• Enable young people to succeed in self-employment in order to create role models.
  Good role models may help promote enterprise as a viable option for young people and also can be used to motivate young people interested in enterprise.
  

To date this program has introduced the following results:

16 Slingshot clients now in employment with 181 young participants having attended training including Green Card, Bricklaying, RSA/RCG, Business Administration, First Aid, Photography, IT Small Business Start Up, Screen Printing and Confidence & Self Esteem.
55 clients have participated in the Slingshot program with the majority going on to further training and a few back to school.

Slingshot caters for clients up the age 24 at the Local Enterprise Centre and clients aged over 25 under a "Micro Connect" program with amazing success rates resulting in the following outcomes:

• 81 local residents placed in work
• 20 small business concepts developed to a point to be considered a genuine and viable business
• 1020 completed training courses
• 4000 visits to Technology Centre
• 5 residents employed on site in staff roles
• A range of partners supporting the project including TAFE, Wesley (through a work for the dole project), Mentor - Ellis (a solicitor providing free legal services), Mount Annan Church providing counselling, Aboriginal Eployment Strategy (running a youth project) and Shirlaws undertaking business coaching.

Make It In Macarthur Investment Drive
Following the success of the Regional Investment Summit held in November 2006, MACROC arranged to launch an exciting marketing initiative to attract new business and investment to the Macarthur region.

The “Make It In Macarthur Investment Drive” fits in well with the goal of growing prosperity across NSW, leading to NSW becoming a preferred location for business as envisioned in the State Plan. With the support of major industry partners, the initiative plans to attract new business to Macarthur from across Australia, thus directly addressing priority P1 in the State Plan. It will also contribute to the strengthening of rural and regional economies by recruiting new business and investment from outside New South Wales to Macarthur. Hence, priority P6 will be directly addressed.
This initiative is compelling against the background of high unemployment rate in Campbelltown (6.7% in September 2006 compared to the national average rate of 4%) and the willingness of local industry partners and Councils to proactively support the priorities of the State Plan in a significant way.

Parramatta Sustainable Business Management Program
Parramatta Council has taken a multi-faceted approach to addressing the serious social and economic issues in Church Street Mall. Realising that re-opening the Mall to traffic would not, on its own, effect the kind of revitalisation the precinct required, they proposed a retailer training program focusing on reducing business overhead costs and increasing turnover by implementing the Sustainable Business Management Program (SBM). This program focuses on business savings through effective management of environmental issues like energy conservation, water consumption, waste management, transport and the use of chemical substances.
The program will also cover other business aspects and is likely to improve the businesses viability through enhanced merchandising and marketing, cash management, staff retention and customer service, and stronger networks amongst traders.

The SBM program is being implemented by Village Green. Village Green is a privately-owned organisation specialising in sustainable management and change systems for the small business and retail sectors. Working in partnership with corporate sponsors, local and state government bodies, Village Green facilitates innovative and ethical solutions with business communities to increase profitability and improve resource efficiency.

The SMB program has been successfully implemented at Broken Hill, Lugarno (NSW) and Smith Street Collingwood (VIC) with all locations reporting savings and improved trading.