Published Jun 2024
Deep experience
These are communities that bring together people who share deep context and experience on a specific topic of social enterprise activity or challenge. The goal is to develop leading practices and share these with others.
Introduction to deep experience
These learning communities bring together people with deep experience around a specific area of social enterprise activity or challenge. They have an intention to learn together, solve problems related to the focus area, and develop practices to share widely.
The key attributes of deep experience learning communities are that they:
- Focus on a specific area of shared inquiry and relevance to the social enterprise sector.
- Leverage wisdom across diverse individuals, organisations, and roles with expertise in the focus area.
- Build trust among community members to enable the free exchange of information and knowledge.
- Facilitate interactions that enable members to gain learning from the group and contribute to the group’s learning in the identified focus area.
- Have an identified coordinator (or co-coordinators) and processes to support regular communication, interaction and learning.
- Have regular meetings (online) and pursue activities between meetings that create learning value for group members.
- Develop agreed terms of reference and ways of working.
- Provide insights and advice on issues related to their area of focus.
- Develop new practices, guidance, tools and strategies to build capability in the identified focus area.
- Share knowledge and practice resources with the sector to advance the area of practice.
- Inform the development of a collective and strategic voice on the topic.
Global examples
Some global examples of deep experience learning communities include:
- Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
- Settlement Engagement and Transition Support Community of Practice (SETSCoP)
- National Disability Services Community of Practice
SEDI funded
SEDI funded deep experience learning communities include:
- Green Collect: Circular economy - challenges, needs and opportunities for social enterprises.
- SEFA Partnerships: Bridging the gap between regional social enterprises and finance.
- Future Minds Network: Youth-centred design and engagement in social enterprise - creating pathways for youth to shape the sector's future.
- Link West: Staying in place - transitioning neighbourhood and community resource centres into social enterprises.
- Black Card: Understanding and respecting Cultural Protocols to build long term partnerships with First Nations peoples and communities.
- Permaqueer: Orienting futures - decolonising practices and systems-change in the social enterprise sector.
- Morgan&co: Lived experience ethical storytelling.
Deep experience learning communities
Future Minds Network: Youth engagement and pathways
Youth engagement and pathways is a learning community for social enterprises that aims to create meaningful opportunities for youth to grow, lead, and thrive. Together, participants of the community will connect, co-design, and share strategies that effectively engage youth-ranging from leadership and training to feedback, design, and the creation of real pathways for change.
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SEFA Partnerships: Rural and remote funding landscape
This learning community will bring together a group of rural and remote leaders working to deliver social impact; and a group of funders wanting to support social impact in rural and remote Australia. From experiences of frustration, it will look for opportunities to increase the flow of funding across Australia’s diverse geographies.
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Green Collect: Circular economy
Help shape a new learning community for social enterprises working in the circular economy — a space to connect, learn and lead a fair and inclusive transition. It will explore shared challenges, grow our collective understanding, and strengthen the sector’s voice in shaping circular solutions.
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PermaQueer: Orienting futures
Orienting futures is a learning community for people working in social enterprise who want to explore new and better ways of doing things. It will look at how to care for people and the planet, understand power and systems, and learn how to make real, lasting change — all while supporting emerging culturally and ecologically responsive practice in the social enterprise sector.
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