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Holly, Roving reporter

Slingshot Community Enterprise & Employment Centre

When I moved to Melbourne at the start of last year I had a lot of big ideas, but I didn't have the community around me that I needed to execute them. I wanted to make clothes and accessories, to write and publish zines, and also to work on my business as a writer, but I just didn't have the connections to make these things happen.

Someone told me about Slingshot Community Enterprise and Employment Centre and I went along to an interview there. I told Ann Howie, the manager of Slingshot, about my ideas, and she thought I might be interested in the short business course that they run.

Short business courses

The short business course is a 12-week course that runs for two days a week. The course involves a group of about fifteen young people working on their ideas, making business plans, doing some research and trying to make their dreams into reality.

As part of this course, you also get:

• Accredited training from the Victorian University of Technology
• Support from mentors
• Access to the facilities at Slingshot (photocopier, computers, phone, fax)
• Contact with staff members and other young people to bounce your ideas off

And the best bit is it doesn't cost a thing!

Heaps of facilities

After a few weeks of participating in the course, I was struggling with the structure and also having problems finding somewhere to live.

I also discovered that my particular ideas couldn't easily be turned into a business. Peter, one of the staff members called me up and told me that if the course wasn't working for me, I was still welcome to come in and use the facilities at Slingshot on a casual basis, and work on my ideas that way.

You don't have to be part of the training program to use the facilities. You can apply to become an Incubator Member of the centre for a very low monthly rate, or if you meet the criteria for being in need, you can use some of the facilities as a casual member up to 20 times a year.

Since then I've been going in to Slingshot every so often to use the computers, talk ideas over with my friends there, discuss grant applications and tax issues with staff members, and to print out flyers for events I'm involved in.

So what is Slingshot, anyway?

Slingshot itself is contained in a beautiful old Edwardian house in North Fitzroy, with office spaces rented out to young business people (the Incubator). Other facilities include:

• Communal spaces
• Computers
• Meeting rooms
• A silkscreen printing room

There's even a little garden out the back which will soon sprout veggies.

Slingshot success stories

Some Slingshot success stories include:

• Another Day, Another Dollar, a financial literacy board game produced by 23-year-old Ant, which may soon be turned into an interactive website
• Cheap Thrills, Fitzroy's own lifestyle and entertainment magazine
• The Carousel silkscreen co-operative, which was recently awarded a Department for Victorian Communities grant to help develop the business in an environmentally friendly way

On any single day at Slingshot, you'll see a whole range of active people working on their plans and ideas:

• People at work on computers
• People touching up photos
• People writing for zines or blogs
• People checking their email or doing some research online
• People printing out flyers or information on the photocopier
• People sitting around the meeting table talking over their business ideas
• People networking or just chatting about their lives
• People preparing food in the kitchenette, maybe even using some of the food delivered by the RMIT food co-op

Of course there's also the staff members who will be hard at work, but always ready to have a yarn about whatever is going on in people's creative/business pursuits.

To find out more about Slingshot Community Enterprise and Employment Centre and how you can get involved, check them out on the web at www.slingshot.org.au (new window).

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