THE SHIFT LAB
Moving entrepreneurs from dreaming to delivering with social enterprise and impact.
The Shift Lab is The van Diemen Project’s social impact incubator, where new social enterprises and for-purpose businesses can be supported to start through workshops, mentoring, tools, and resources to bed down the best platform to succeed.
For those ideas that we know are shared at the dining table, over a coffee with friends, around community groups and all across the community that drive impact as well as covering costs, The Shift Lab exists to turn those ideas into a reality – from dreaming to delivery. We know that so many of these ideas are beneficial to the community and will create outcomes for customers too, and through the support of building these ideas with others who care about impact, developing a stronger foundation through workshops and mentoring checks, and getting the support to test the idea to prepare for launch, The Shift Lab is here.
The model of the incubator is informed by impact incubation programs from over twenty other countries around the world, adapting this for regional communities, and is focused on clarifying the idea, keeping impact at the core of the idea and providing confidence and support to see the idea start and drive impact.
The program builds upon years of experience in regional development, community impact, education, entrepreneurship and volunteering in incredible organisations – all packaged up to help you on your impact journey. The first rounds of the program are running now in Tasmania (with the support of the Tasmanian Government through the Department of State Growth), with future programs being discussed and prepared across for across Australia.
What do we offer in The Shift Lab?
- Access to engaging workshops that build the platform for your enterprise, get it in front of customers and help you move towards launch in a rapid yet considered fashion.
- Support with regular mentoring checks throughout the program delivery to help you remain accountable.
- Collaborations with industry partners to bring in knowledge, skills, and experience from the broadest possible range of perspectives, all focused on helping new enterprises start.
- Ability to access action-orientated resources and tools to help frame your thinking, refine for impact and be a resource to draw on for years to come.
- As social enterprise is a form of business, you will leverage the experience of starting multiple businesses and mentoring thousands more all to help you take confident steps on your journey.
The Shift Lab is shaped by:
- Experience living in regional communities, where innovative approaches to common challenges are just part of what the community has in abundance – but sometimes lack the resources to make it all happen.
- Educating over 18,500 students across Australia in school-based education programs.
- Visiting and learning from leaders in social impact in the United States of America as part of a State Department Leadership Program.
- Being involved in, and helping facilitate, the world’s largest innovation lab for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals called UNLEASH.
- Delivering programs for people with disabilities to explore self-employment to use their skills and passions to create opportunities for themselves and those around them.
- Working in Melbourne to help youth as well as culturally and linguistically diverse communities to create their own job, amongst much more.
GET IN TOUCH
Have questions, queries, comments? Want help solving a problem? The best way to get in touch with us is via this form.
The information collected gives us the best idea of how we can help you and what information we need to get you there.
