Addressing sector wide failings
Through SVA Consulting, SVA is able to work with a range of non-profit organisations and social enterprises on customised result driven solutions, helping organisations to overcome these systemic problems around accessing capital, talent and an evidence base.
Drawing on professional skills, expertise and knowledge, SVA Consulting works with organisations in the sector to deliver their mission and grow their impact. The Consulting team’s intimate understanding of the sector ensures they are well placed to assist with developing organisational strategy, enhancing operational delivery, identifying collaboration and leadership building opportunities and providing the evidence required to demonstrate success.
SVA also creatively and aggressively works towards providing areas of need with access to commercial volumes of capital. Whether that be large scale new social investment models applied to ‘for purpose’ businesses such as the one developed for GoodStart Childcare, or increasing the profile of philanthropy and growing giving levels amongst Australia’s affluent through SVA’s Private Ancillary Fund Service, SVA is committed to creating better markets for social capital.
Collaborating to improve education outcomes
Through collaborating with funding partners and sector practitioners, SVA believes we can ensure 220,000 disadvantaged children will achieve educational outcomes on par with their more fortunate peers by 2020. To achieve this goal we will focus on two key intervention areas:
Build greater diversity of learning models
Across all educational settings – early learning, primary schools and secondary schools – international evidence shows that there is a diversity of learning models already operating, that have demonstrated significant success in disadvantaged communities. Some of these models are achieving more consistent and better outcomes across literacy, numeracy and social skills when compared to their mainstream counterparts, yet despite this evidence of success, these models are struggling to achieve scale as a consequence of lack of visibility and support.
And as research points to the critical role teaching quality plays in a child’s educational performance, it is clear that the models that should be encouraged are those that provide an opportunity for an increased focus on teacher quality and give school principals clear accountability for student outcomes.
SVA believes that by supporting learning models that help schools become fit for purpose, the success that has already been demonstrated in some disadvantaged communities can be replicated across to other similar communities.
Engage families and communities in learning
But educational settings do not operate in isolation, and the family and community setting of the child, can and often does, have a profound influence over the performance at school of disadvantaged children.
Many of the learning models that SVA collaborate with recognise this context and work to transform learning through family and community engagement, each adopting different engagement approaches across all stages of the learning pathway.
Collaborating to improve employment outcomes
Through collaborating with partners and sector practitioners, SVA believes that by 2020 we can support 20,000 Australians who are either at risk of falling into employment exclusion, or are already excluded from the labour market and require support to move into employment. To achieve this goal we will focus on two key intervention areas:
Create pathways to employment for youth at risk, addressing job supply issue
SVA supports the creation of pathways into sustainable employment for youth at risk, partnering with programs focused on offering work readiness programs, traineeships and work experience.
SVA’s experience with venture partners such as Ganbina, who focus on work readiness for the Indigenous community of the Goulburn Valley, demonstrates just how effective these types of programs can be.
Create new jobs in suitable supportive work environments, addressing job demand issue
SVA’s work in supporting the development of social enterprises, has shown the success that well-run social enterprises can have in creating new jobs for those excluded from the labour market. It has also demonstrated the important role social enterprises can play in overcoming barriers and successfully transitioning long-term unemployed back into the workforce.
Another opportunity SVA is exploring is to use an Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) as a bridge between long-term unemployment and the mainstream labour market. SVA is supporting initiatives that look to provide the long-term unemployed with time-limited waged employment in a genuine work environment, with the goal of assisting these individuals to ultimately transition to the mainstream labour market.
SVA is also taking the learnings from its partnerships with employment based initiatives and sharing this evidence base with those in the corporate sector who are seeking to play a more active role in creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged Australians in traditional for profit businesses. Through SVA’s extensive networks in the business community, SVA is well placed to be an intermediary and perform a broker style role in these kinds of scenarios.