Home SMART 100 (2013) With One Voice (VIC) – 2013 Anthill SMART 100

With One Voice (VIC) – 2013 Anthill SMART 100

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1. THE BEGINNING

This innovation came to life when…

In 2008 social entrepreneur and soprano Tania de Jong saw the popularity of choirs and decided to reverse the “hard knocks” model to create choirs of social inclusion that represent the diversity of our global community. Given her experience and knowledge of singing, she believed transformational social and economic outcomes were possible. She brought together asylum seekers with CEOs, job seekers and teachers, and people with depression and disabilities. Each With One Voice choir is a networking environment, a social incubator and a platform for building social harmony. This innovation creates magical outcomes!

2. WHAT & HOW

The purpose of this innovation is to…

Create meaningful community participation, mentoring, skills and employment opportunities for all people, especially the disadvantaged, and build strong, inclusive, healthy community networks that support individuals to be heard and reach their full potential.

It does this by…

Combining the science of singing with the power of diverse networks and actively encouraging people to ask for what they need. Science demonstrates that singing connects the neural pathways in the brain differently, making people more creative, smarter and intelligent. It also releases endorphins, making them happier. From this position, people are more capable of asking, receiving and giving help.

3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS

This innovation improves on what came before because…

Empowering people — especially the disadvantaged — is traditionally done via institutions and agencies focusing on an individual’s problems. This reinforces a negative message and often the service provider becomes an expensive ‘crutch’ for individuals and communities. The With One Voice model empowers people by building diverse networks that foster understanding and inspire people to assist one another.

The benefits to the customer/end-user include…

Increasing their happiness, creativity, productivity, confidence, mental and physical well-being; providing an outlet for stress, anxiety and depression; building new friendships and networks that connect people to opportunities (skills, mentoring, employment); and facilitating people to feel the joy of giving.

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4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

In the past, this problem was solved by…

Councils, institutions and agencies creating dedicated places where disadvantaged and disempowered groups learned from, and supported, each other. These services were supported by government. Unfortunately this reinforces segregation, entrenches ‘labels’ based on a negative message, and creates a dependency mentality. By comparison, the choir draws on community goodwill and builds individual philanthropy to create supportive networks and communities.

Its predecessors/competitors include…

This is a groundbreaking innovation due to the engineered diversity of participants and focus on skills. Its competitors include general choirs that target single-issue causes (e.g. seniors, stroke patients, refugees, or community choirs that don’t cater for the disadvantaged).

5. TARGET MARKET

This innovation is made for…

Groups wanting to break down silos and create strong, healthy, inclusive communities that support each other, and individuals that want to contribute directly to their community. This includes migrants, job seekers, people with physical or mental disabilities and depression, youth, adults and seniors, people suffering economic or social disadvantage, executives and professionals seeking meaning in life, organisations helping individuals in need and those wanting to make a difference in society, regional and isolated individuals, groups and communities, people wanting to find confidence and their voice, and all people seeking joy, hope, harmony, health and happiness.

6. DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

It is available for sale through…

Two distribution channels: (1) for community groups and organisations to set up a choir that brings their community together as ‘one voice’, and (2) for individuals to belong as members to a With One Voice program already in existence.

Our marketing strategy is to…

(1) partner with government, social and community groups, local businesses, health, employment and welfare service providers to invite individuals to participate in a choir; (2) use choir performances, social media and the mainstream media to inspire other people to participate; and (3) target and inspire community leaders to bring their community stakeholders together to establish new choirs. withonevoice1

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We’ll use your vote to create the 2013 SMART 100 Readers’ Choice Index. Learn more here! FINE PRINT This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.