Examine God’s requirement to show justice with the head of a social enterprise supporting disadvantaged and homeless youth who want to join the hospitality industry.

Speaking: Rebecca Scott, co-founder and chief executive officer of STREAT.

STREAT is a Melbourne-based social enterprise supporting disadvantaged and homeless young adults who want to join the hospitality industry.

After five years of operation, STREAT has now worked with more than 340 young adults and served more than one million customers. It won the award as Most Innovative Australian Social Enterprise in 2013. But Scott feels STREAT is just getting started, and she has big plans for its growth and innovation.

Establishing STREAT has brought challenges and breaks—including pioneering business models for nonprofit organisations, acquiring three other hospitality businesses, receiving as a gift a $2.5 million property, forging partnerships with some unlikely companies, and harnessing members of the community to help drive social change through their daily purchases.

One outgrowth of Scott’s work has been requests for lectures at The University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology in social impact in business and social entrepreneurship. STREAT also takes about 15 student interns each year.

Rebecca is a long way from the plans she had while growing up in a staff home on Avondale’s Lake Macquarie campus, while a student at Avondale School and from where she started her career as a scientist, but her childhood experiences have strongly shaped her calling.

Presented by Avondale College of Higher Education and Sydney Adventist Forum.