2008ANNUALREPORT

SIFEVU

JUDGE US! 1 Market Economics

2 Education & Training

3 Entrepreneurialism

4 Financial Management

5 Business Ethics

6 Sustainability

THE WESTERN X X X X X XLINK MI X XJOB ASSIST X X

VU SIFE Y’z OUR BUSINESS ADVISORY BOARDWe would like to thank all the members of our business advisory board for all your time, effort, advice and support in our first year of operation.

Abdi Hassan Lecturer

Abdullahi Osman Accountant

Cyril Jankoff Business Consultant and Lecturer

David Southwick Entrepreneur

Jeff Faux Head of School of Accounting and Finance

John Breen Deputy Dean, Victoria University

WE LOVE YOU!Thank you to David Southwick our Faculty Advisor for your constant support, advice and dedication to VU SIFE. Thank you to Jeff Faux and Victoria University for all their support which has been priceless to us. Thank you to all the members of VU SIFE in 2008 for your dedication in the establishment of a SIFE club at Victoria University.

Thank you!

WE’RE NOT LAZY! WE’VE DONE THISProjects: 3Hours Dedicated: 380People Impacted: 170New SIFE members: 19Media Impressions: 22,000Financial Contributions: $11,197

All in 3 months

OUR SCHOOL IS COOL! Victoria University has more than 45,000 students across 11 campuses world wide. Melbourne is home to over 400,000 disadvantaged people. Low socio-economic backgrounds, poor education standards, high unemployment rates and a lack of government health funding are a few of the obstacles faced by people in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. The VU SIFE club strives to deliver the best facilities to the community and those who are in need of assistance in order to suceed in life, and make the most of living in the Western suburbs of Melbourne.

Our mission is to promote education and its sustainability within the community.

Some of participants of The Western project and VU SIFE members with Marsha Thompsom, State member for Footscray.

TREASURE! $Institutional Support 10,485Fund Raising Activities 255Grants 500Donations 450

Total In $11,690

Link Mi 60Job Assist 70The Western 277Australian Championships 7,485Catering Donations 3,000

Total Out $10,892

Left Over $798

David Southwick, Faculty Advisor

Guy Roberts, President

John Breen, Deputy Dean, Victoria University

OUR MATES

VIVA LA SIFE!The sustainability of VU SIFE is crucial to the ongoing success of our community efforts. We will be sustained by a strategy of fund-raising, recruiting and marketing.

Fund-raising is a critical element and is vital to the sustainability of our club. With a new club only initiated in March 2008, we are always on the lookout for potential fund-raising events and sponsors. A social network has been set up amongst university students in order to guarantee and increase attendance to any VU SIFE fund-raising events. The latest event took place in the city with dozens of participants. Another method of club sustainability is that each member will try to recruit three new members every year. The VU SIFE club is continually being promoted at orientation and open days in order to attract budding students. We are a young club full of 1st year students hoping to continue into the future with the support of Victoria University and the community.

Marketing and recruitment are key to our club continuing beyond our current members. We have so far recruited 19 new members and are aiming to double this number by semester 2 2009. VU SIFE continue to advertise through word of mouth and will soon be implementing a marketing strategy to actively seek members through information stalls, posters and the internet using social networking sites as well as our own website.

Goals: • Each member is to try and recruit 3 new members each year • 40 Members by semester 2 2009 • 5 Projects running by 2009 • Develop a succession plan in 1 year

So Far: • 2 fund raising initiatives completed • 1 Social networking event conducted • 1 round of recruiting • 19 new members in 3 months

VU SIFE has made every effort reasonable to ensure all the information in this report is up to date and correct as of July 8, 2008.

ww

w.them

aribyrnongleader.com.au

July8,

20087

News

BRIEFLY

Man on kill countAWEST Footscraymanwho allegedlyshot dead anotherman in a Yarravillepark has been charged withmurder.George Reglis, 35, of Geelong Rd, wascharged over the death of MartinoVentrice at McIvor Reserve on Friday,June 27. He was also charged withpossessing an unregistered handgunand ammunition. He did not seek bailand will face court in October.

Burglars wantedPOLICE smashed the side window of agetaway car after disturbing burglarsbreaking into a Tottenhamsupermarket last week. Two policemeninterrupted twomen trying to cut theirway through the roller door of theOlympia St supermarket about 1.30amon Fridaymorning. One of themenwassprayed with capsicum spray during ascuffle before both sped away in awaiting car. Bothmenwere describedas 185cm, caucasian, in their 20s andwith shaved heads. The car wasbelieved to be a dark VT HoldenCommodore sedan. Information toCrime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Child-care talksFEDERALMPMaxineMcKewwill host apublic forum on child care in Yarravillenext week. The ParliamentarySecretary for Early ChildhoodEducation and Child Care will speak onthe Government’s promise to fundmore child-care places in the suburb,identified as a hotspot in need of help.The forum is on Thursday, July 17 atthe Yarraville Senior Citizens Club. Tobook a place call 9687 7355.

African shop talk vitalBrad Ryan

Guy Roberts and Zara Syed talk to Abdullahi Osman about managing a business in Australia.Picture: ADAM ELWOOD N02WT111

BUSINESS owners fromFootscray’s African communityare falling into debt, according toresearch by students at VictoriaUniversity.

Members of the university’sStudents in Free Enterprise Clubhave found third-world culturaland business practices were nottranslating well in the Australianmarketplace.

Most African migrants’businesses in the Footscray re-gion were operating in the red oron little revenue, with manycaught in a growing cycle of debt –much in goods borrowed fromneighbouring businesses.

But the students, who spoke tobusiness owners and collated Gov-ernment and council data to re-search the problem, are takingaction to turn the fortunes offlailing traders around.

For the past three months, theSIFE Club has run workshopswith volunteer business expertshelping business owners developpathways out of problems.

‘‘We have recruited severalbusinesses in desperate need ofassistance and have providedthem with an ongoing trainingprogram where they address theirissues and we resolve them,’’ MsSyed said.

Gurus in finance, marketing,management and business plan-ning have been among those at theworkshops, along with local vol-unteer interpreters. Most of theparticipants are women, who are

often afforded little or no edu-cation in their home countries.

‘‘In this ethnic population,women don’t usually play a bigrole in the workforce, but thosewho do are often running thesebusinesses,’’ Ms Syed said.

For their efforts, the studentshave earned the chance to com-pete for a national SIFE title – andpossibly a world championship.

Club members will fly to

Brisbane this week for the SIFEAustralia National Champion-ships, where they will take on 31teams from other universitieswho have been running their owncommunity service schemes.

Representatives from the clubwill deliver a presentation on thescheme and its results to a panel ofjudges and fellow students.

The winner of the national titleswill head to Singapore for the

SIFE World Cup in October. MsSyed said the group was keen toshow its achievements after see-ing standards lift amongparticipating businesses.

‘‘It’s actually really exciting be-cause we get to present what wehave done with the local commu-nity and we’re really passionateabout that, we believe we havereally made a difference,’’ shesaid.

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Left: Newspaper article on the VU SIFE project ‘The Western’ courtesy of The Leader Newspaper. Above: Participants of ‘The Western’ project at a seminar. Top: Zara speaking to local business own-ers at one of the business seminars.

Bridging the gap between immigrants and Australia

A project developed in order to link immigrants with vital information in order to assist in easing the transition from their home countries into Australia. The Western suburbs are observing an increasingly high rate of new immigrant arrivals yearly. The difficulties immigrants face include public transport, schooling and education for children, awareness of health facilities and eligibility to welfare. A fast and effective communication tool was established which enables immigrants to be notified of the information available to them by government bodies. The information was communicated to the immigrants via posters and advertisements located in areas with high immigrant traffic such as the local supermarkets, train stations and restaurants of Footscray.

Results and Outcomes

• Providing local immigrants with crucial information

• Use of tear away tab system

• 100 people directly benefited

• 60 hours invested so far

Results and Outcomes

• 7 people signed up for ongoing mentoring course

• Providing the community with the resources they need to obtain a stable job

• more than 20 show bags handed out

• 30 people directly benefited

• 100 hours invested by project team so far

This project was initiated in order to assist those businesses facing hardships in the transition from business styles in Africa to those of Australia. Developed to identify the issues faced by African businesses in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne and accordingly implement suitable interventions in order to increase revenues and community cohesion. The team focuses on educating the business owners about financial literacy, basic accounting skills, marketing, cross-promotional and customer relation skills. It was found that 80 percent of the businesses were run by women, and considering the minority of women working from the African culture, our project has proved to strengthen the role of African women in the workforce. Workshops and seminars are conducted on a weekly basis by professionals and SIFE members, compliments of the VU SIFE team, in order to achieve a better understanding between the African businesses and the Australian community.

Assisting the people of the west seek employment

Job assist is a project established to address the high unemployment rates of the westen region. Maribyrnong city has an unemployment rate of 11.3% double the state averagre of 5.7%. Information stalls were set up in the heart of Footscray region. Information packs distributed included guidelines for job seeking, employment agencies, resume building and interview techniques. Stalls were set up with the assistance of the Salvation Army Employment Plus network. Unemployed people registered themselves for assistance in job seeking, which will be held by the VU SIFE club and Employment Plus. Nutrient water was used in order to attract people to the stall and convince unemployed people to make use of the facilities available to them.

Results and Outcomes

• 6 regular participants from the western region

• Increased awareness of financial literacy and market economics

• Due to our programs work the participants have begun a cross promotion initiative with their businesses

• Seminars run by business experts volunteering their time

• 22,000 media impressions from local news paper article on VU SIFE and ‘The Western’ project

• 40 people directly benefited

• 220 hours invested by project team so far

The Western - A business regeneration project

Local job seeker signing up for on going mentoring program.

Link Mi poster