This year, Wanta introduced some ‘Social Enterprise’ projects within some of our communities and in July we delivered a blog on how it’s being carried out in Kalkaringi. To recap our aim, it’s a new endeavour within the Wanta Academies to support students in developing and delivering their own social enterprises in their communities. The goal is to develop their understanding of social enterprises, how running a small business can support economic freedom, and to provide opportunities for them to develop a multitude of skills, including independence, confidence, customer service, money handling and teamwork. The hope for the Academy Directors is that the skills and experiences they will gain through their social enterprise projects will allow students to highlight strengths, perhaps find enjoyment or purpose in the process, and may contribute to them undertaking employment in the future…and maybe even setting up their own small business one day! In this blog, we are taking a glimpse into how it’s running in some of our other communities.
In Beswick last term, the senior students were working hard on their business ‘Beswick Burgers’. They decided to do a practice run for the school and worked as a group preparing the food; cutting up onions, lettuce, tomatoes, buns and meat patties. They formed an assembly line to put together the burgers and they then served the entire school – which was over ninety students! This was an amazing team effort and great preparation/learning for the official Beswick Burgers launch. Then, in the last week of term, the Beswick Burgers officially launched with the Wanta movie truck hosting an event that had over one hundred community members in attendance. The ‘BB’s team were very impressive; working under pressure; from taking orders to making the burgers and serving them. The community members in attendance bought their burgers for five dollars each. They enjoyed supporting the seniors’ students new business, while watching a family friendly film on the Wanta movie truck. The team raised four hundred dollars which was a tremendous effort. This term, ‘BB’s is planning to host a disco event and sell more burgers. The senior students will decide as a group what to do with the profits to help the local Wugularr community.
Meanwhile, in Arlparra, the students have been working hard on their social enterprise that will be launching this term. ‘Red Rock Pizza’ will be open for business on the 27th of August, delivering delicious, homemade pizzas made to order for the people of Arlparra. The students have been able to identify issues within their community that they want to raise funds to assist in remedying. They are currently in the process of deciding which cause is most important to them. They have begun workshopping their logo, creating menus and other marketing materials as well as curating a budget and a detailed list of all the things they require for the business to run smoothly. Once the menu is complete, students will be practicing the cooking of all menu items to ensure launch day of ‘Red Rock Pizza’ is a huge success!
In Yuendumu, they will also be starting a Social Enterprise project this term. They are in the preliminary stages of purchasing equipment to start a screen printing business – providing young people with skills in the arts – graphic design and printing skills. The social enterprise business will be able to create clothing apparel and merchandise for young people in Yuendumu as well as providing an affordable option for organisations to purchase uniforms and merchandise in a socially responsible way – supporting local young people’s skill development and employment pathways.
Wanta would like to thank the Sunshine Foundation and Katie and Mark Davies for their significant contributions to making these amazing Social Enterprise projects happen. The economic and business skills, not to mention confidence that the students are building is immeasurable! We look forward to bringing you more updates on our Social Enterprises in the future, in the meantime – well done to all the students working so hard on them!
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