The Benevolent Society, Australia’s first charity, has made the decision to close Social Leadership Australia (SLA) after almost 20 years. SLA was launched in 1999 by The Benevolent Society as an innovative program to educate government, not-for-profit and corporate principals about leading their organisations and departments through a lens of social impact and justice.
However, The Benevolent Society’s Board, CEO and executives have decided to concentrate all energies on the organisation’s three areas of focus: child and family, older Australians and people with disability.
“We are proud to have created and launched SLA as an innovative program 18 years ago. We recognise the importance of social leadership and how it has helped educate leaders to achieve social change. We acknowledge the fantastic work The Benevolent Society staff who worked on SLA, consultants who delivered the programs, alumni, and funders have done to execute the curriculum to help people lead through social impact and justice. But, it is time for us to close SLA. Perhaps it will emerge and evolve into a new entity,” said CEO Jo Toohey.
“The market for social leadership has evolved and it is time for The Benevolent Society to step back.
“At The Benevolent Society, we will continue to concentrate all our energies on helping people live their best lives by providing services to children and families to keep children safe and well, to assist older Australians age well and remain in their homes for as long as possible, and to provide services to people with disability. Additionally we will continue to advocate for change to help people live better lives.”