It’s been a wild journey as one of Orange Sky’s Co-Founders since 2014. I’ve survived many a broken-down washing machine, watched our services grow and develop, and helped lead us through a pandemic. We’re now sharpening our focus and direction to look to the future as we strive to deliver on our mission to positively connect more people.
In September 2020 after a whirlwind year, we launched our five-year strategy to our internal team. This was co-developed with the Senior Leadership Team and Board’s vision to ‘help more people, with more resilient revenue streams whilst still finding ways to innovate and support the community.’ We’re currently helping 13,300 people and set a new goal to help 40,000 people experiencing homelessness by 2025.
One of the themes to come out of the strategy development was how innovation runs through everything we do. It has, and always should be part of our DNA. From building our very first van ‘Sudsy’, to upgrading our laundry vans to include shower capability, to our work in remote communities and the launch of Volaby – we are constantly looking for ways to innovate and help more people in our community.
When Nic and I first started Orange Sky, we had no idea about budgets, impact or scalability, but we sure are thankful that we gave it a go anyway. Six and a half years after our very first wash, we’re launching an exciting initiative that will support that very idea of ‘giving things a crack’. Team Delta – meaning an alternative form of change – is about leaning into our capacity to innovate and giving things a go that have potential to make a difference. With strong and simple principles, vision and methodology, we are excited to discover the next positive connection that we can make.
As part of this change, I am excited to share that I will be stepping into the role of CEO, while Nic will be moving to the newly created position of Chief Delta Officer (CDO), leading Orange Sky’s innovation stream and enabling new projects to be developed and delivered to support more people doing it tough.
This does not change our mission to positively connect communities; it means we will be working hard to find more efficient and innovative ways to grow and connect with our community.
The team has already delivered some great wins to help more people doing it tough, including a focused sprint on how we can start new shifts more effectively, connecting our data sources to ensure we’re using data to better inform our decision making, and – just last week – the launch of our remote venture visiting 20 communities across South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland.
My belief is that everyone at Orange Sky can be an innovator from our team at HQ, to our volunteers, friends and supporters. Ideas can come from anywhere; for us, the key to moving forward is how to take it from an idea into action and give it the time and space to grow and mature to drive impact. I am excited to have Nic more focused on this to help us as organisation into the future and we can’t wait to share with you the developments that we’re making.
If you have any thoughts, questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Meet the next generation of innovators at Orange Sky
