Voices of GROW

Building trust, confidence and understanding

I was saying that [name] had barriers to employment: Mental illness; fairly significant challenges in terms of work; long term unemployed – these are the limitations that [the employee] had. We teamed up with another GROW signatory called Encompass Community Services – that we recruited [the employee] through, and they also provided us with support...

Working toward the same outcomes

Well I became involved in GROW through my manager […], with my role being I suppose … around employment and training opportunities and the Department of Justice and Community Safety already working with GROW, she thought it would be [of] benefit to work with [Liz Everist, GROW backbone] and from there it has grown into...

Enabling policy and practice change

The idea of GROW is a natural fit for our business. … Before the change we would have stated very clearly that our business buys locally and this would have happened naturally and I would have stated that that policy view would have been well communicated to the team that was making purchasing decisions/procurement decisions...

GROW Start-Up Review

An external review of GROW was undertaken by Clear Horizon Consulting, reflecting on the activities and outcomes of the GROW initiative during the start-up phase. Whilst the review reflected on past achievements, the main focus was to support forward thinking and planning, to build on success and develop insightful solutions to move past the...

Making a difference through social procurement

Being a local government buyer for the region it was a great opportunity for us to make a difference – and to make that difference we needed to create a partnership with an organisation with more knowledge and expertise in the procurement and social enterprise space that could assist Barwon Water meeting its policy requirements...

Shifting focus at local and state level

My involvement with GROW came about when Colac Area Health become compact signatories. There are several parts of the organisation that are connected to GROW in different ways. My involvement with GROW is due to the fact I oversee both procurement and the unskilled workforce in the food services department. Becoming a compact signatory has...

Solution to recruitment challenges…

Cameron Shepherd, Aus Pits, shares his most significant change story as part of the review of the Start-Up Phase of GROW, and how unique solutions to recruitment have improved staff morale, productivity and efficiencies. What is a Most Significant Change story? The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a form of monitoring and evaluation...

Incredible thought leadership…

Jennifer Cromarty, Committee for Geelong, shares her most significant change story as part of the review of the Start-Up Phase of GROW. What is a Most Significant Change story? The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a form of monitoring and evaluation that involves the collection of significant change stories across the GROW collective....

BTS inspiring change

As a reasonably small business, with a strong vision and focus on supporting the local community, BTS-Business Technology Specialists joined GROW knowing their commitment aligned strongly with GROW principles. However, on providing expenditure data to GROW and receiving their individual dashboard, Stan Corner (CEO) was surprised to find how much leakage of spend had occurred...

Procurement Analysis – 2018 financial year

Following the GROW report card, we took some time to further analyse the procurement data provided by Compact Signatories. The attached report looks at key trends, spend flows in to the G21 region and also down to suburb level, as well as digging a little further in to spend that is occurring outside of the...