The Stretton Centre is a focal point for collaboration between industry, researchers and government.
As the economic development hub for the City of Playford, the Stretton Centre has robust relationships with local industry, state and local governments, researchers and universities, perfectly positioning the Stretton Centre to facilitate research initiatives that create economic and social outcomes.
Please see examples of key research facilitated by the Stretton Centre.
Stretton Fellowship
The Stretton Fellowship was officially launched at the Stretton Centre on Friday, 25 September by former Premier for South Australia, Jay Weatherill.
The Stretton Fellowship funded two researchers to work with industry and Government to explore sustainable, new industries that will deliver employment opportunities into the future.
Former Social Housing Minister The Hon. Zoe Bettison, through Housing SA, provided $100,000 to the Stretton Fellowship, split evenly across two years, enabling a researcher to identify new industries and employment opportunities for northern Adelaide.
The value of social enterprise
The 2017-18 Stretton Fellowship focused on the potential opportunities that could be achieved by engaging social enterprises to facilitate job creation for socially and economically disadvantaged populations.
The Stretton Centre commissioned the University of Adelaide’s South Australian Centre for Economic Studies to conduct a report on the value of social enterprises using two South Australian social enterprises as case studies.
The report demonstrates the socio-economic value of social enterprises to the community and how social procurement can be a driver of growth in the industry, read the report below.
This research is part of a broader initiative of the Stretton Centre that explores opportunities for public sector bodies to target their procurement of goods and service for greater social benefit, in particular in northern Adelaide, the Purpose Business Network – North.
Housing SA
Dr Ann-Louise Hordacre, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute, Flinders University, was the 2016-17 Stretton Fellow.
Dr. Hordacre undertook research to support the implementation and evaluation of Housing SA’s initiatives to improve the economic and / or social participation of Housing SA tenants.