Our beginnings
Changemakers Collective began in 2011, as an informal effort to support young people from migrant and refugee communities who were passionate about contributing to social change in their own communities, but who faced numerous barriers in doing so, many from within the social change sector itself.
We saw that a lack of diversity within the social change sector, coupled with the lack of sustained and meaningful engagement with marginalised communities, meant that many professionals are simply not equipped to read the reality of the very communities they are trying to support. It is this lack of capacity within the sector that has given rise to the pervasive narrative of marginalised communities as being “hard-to-reach” or having limited capacity to access support services and engage in advocacy social change.
Our experience at the grassroots has proven that this could not be further from the truth. Marginalised communities have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and have repeatedly demonstrated their capacity for resourcefulness and innovation, even without the same access to the organisational infrastructure and funding that the social change sector has.
We wanted to create a movement that would bridge the divide between social change professionals and individuals from marginalised communities, firstly, by building the sector’s capacity to take a community-driven and participatory approach to social change and innovation and, more importantly, creating opportunities for those excluded from social change work - young people, migrant and refugee communities, people with lived experience of marginalisation - to collectively build their skills and realise their immense potential for social change innovation and leadership.
The challenges
The key challenges that we saw acting as barriers to participation in social change for young people, migrant and refugee communities and people with lived experience of marginalisation were:
The limited ability of the social change sector - both as a result of funding limitations, as well as the lack of community development expertise - to meaningfully engage with, much less work in partnership with, marginalised communities and individuals with lived experience of vulnerability and disadvantage
The limited opportunities available for marginalised communities and individuals with lived experience of vulnerability and disadvantage to be involved in decision-making about the policies and programs that affect them, because of lack of sustained community engagement by social change professionals and and barriers to employment that marginalised communities face within the social change sector
The financial and opportunity costs involved with many traditional avenues for professional development and career advancement (e.g. postgraduate study, international work experience and unpaid internships) that make them inaccessible for many people, particularly those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage
The lack of high-quality and culturally responsive social change education and professional development opportunities that can adequately prepare aspiring changemakers from diverse backgrounds to engage meaningfully with multicultural and multifaith communities like their own
A funding environment within the social change sector that does not reward organisations for taking community-driven approaches to project design that foster meaningful community engagement and cross-sector collaboration
Our PROGRAMS
To address these challenges, we decided to develop:
For aspiring changemakers: Work-integrated learning programs that allow young people and individuals from marginalised communities to build their social change leadership skills while working on exciting, innovative and whole-of-community projects, alongside out community and sector partners
For the social change sector: Consulting and professional development services to support community and not-for-profit organisations to strengthen their engagement with their target communities and to maximise their social impact
To bridge the gap between changemakers at the grassroots and social change professionals: Our in-house Social Lab, with community projects that facilitate the level of collaboration and community engagement that many organisations are unable to achieve because of funding restrictions and organisational limitations