Bushkids is a Land-Led and Community-Led Social Enterprise
A social enterprise applies an entrepreneurial approach to addressing social issues and creating positive community change. While a social enterprise is legally a business, its mission is at the heart of everything it does. This structure gives the social enterprise the ability to move quickly and flexibly to take advantage of opportunities it otherwise couldn’t. It also ensures that the integrity of the organization is maintained – reducing the need to chase government funding and grants.
Bushkids is a Land-led and Community-led social enterprise focused on ethical practices with the founding-purpose of making itself obsolete. This will become a reality once Land-led learning is supported in schools all across the territory, integrated as a regular and routine part of their curriculum. A community-led social enterprise model gives Bushkids the flexibility and independence to achieve that mission in the near future by creating a template to be used by schools and communities that focuses on efficient use of resources and financial stability.
Bushkids Is:
Land-led
We are accountable, responsive and adaptive to the Land.
Community-led
We have a learning-model that is based on being adaptive to local community needs and practices and an advisory team made up of Indigenous Northerners, government, small-business owners, community members, and Elders.
Ethical
We are focused on building ethical relationships, employing ethical practices, and creating ethical spaces (where Indigenous and Euro-western world views co-exist in a mutually respectful and welcoming space).
Quick-moving
Bushkids’ mission is an urgent one and a community-led social enterprise model allows the organization to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities without delay.
Flexible
A community-led social enterprise model allows for the flexibility that is crucial to building respectful relationships (such as the ability to pay knowledge-holders immediately, without external approval).
Independent
Bushkids’ independence ensures it remains keenly focused on its founding purpose, without the need to compromise or fit into established models to obtain funding or create partnerships.
Creating a sustainable program model
We are focused on developing a set of tools and best practices for running on-the-Land programs that is sustainable financially and efficient logistically, so that it can easily be adapted by schools and other organizations in a way that centres the local community, nations and peoples.
Not a charity
In order for Bushkids to achieve its goal of Land-based learning being integrated into schools across the territory as a regular and routine part of their curriculum, schools must make it part of their core funding and not rely on Bushkids the organization to fund it.