Nick Pearce On Uplifting Youth Affected By Homelessness Through A Fashion Social Enterprise

Nick Pearce is the Co-Founder & CEO of HoMie, a streetwear clothing social enterprise.

HoMie dedicates 100% of its profits towards its mission; to support young people affected by homelessness or hardship. The enterprise equips them with the skills, confidence and experiences needed be more work-ready and better prepared for their future.

Nick was awarded the 2017 Victorian Young Achievers Award for Leadership and 2018 National Retail Association's Young Retailer of the Year.

Nick discusses generating sustainable and long-lasting impact for Australian youth affected by homelessness through a clothing social enterprise donating 100% of its profits.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and then what led to your work in social enterprise?

[Nick Pearce] - My background is that I did a communications degree in Melbourne at RMIT University. Certainly, I wasn't an exemplary student; I got the degree, but it wasn't with Honours or anything like that at all! I was just one of those students that got to all the classes I needed to get to and did all that. I had a great time there, and my degree was really focused on communication, journalism and advertising in PR. I loved it, I was a very social person. I had an awesome time in that regard, and I guess from a work experience perspective, I certainly hadn't had a senior management role in any organisation. I obviously came into HoMie when I was quite young (in my twenties). I'd worked for a burger restaurant, I'd worked at a bottle store, and actually my job prior to or whilst I was starting up HoMie (when I was volunteering) was I was a manny, a male nanny. I certainly haven't had any management experience, and found myself obviously in this role at quite a young age. But obviously that's often what happens when it's your own start-up; you're bootstrapping and all that kind of stuff. It's been an unconventional journey, but I've always really enjoyed the storytelling component, and HoMie came about because one of the other co-founders and myself (they're quite a talented creative, photographer and whatnot) decided to just go and speak to someone who was living rough on the streets in Melbourne. They were just at the top of Swanton Street, which is very close to where I went to University. It was one of my breaks from university, and my co-founder was working in a retail store at the time, so we decided to meet up and chat to someone, and then the rest is history.

As Co-Founder and CEO of HoMie Clothing, can you please share more about this enterprise and what it's doing, but also then how it's creating a positive social change?

We use 100% of our profits towards the mission, and that is obviously to work with young people affected by homelessness or hardship. We use that language very intently, and I'll talk about why we do so as well. Helping involves building skills, confidence and experiences to get people ready for work and to become self-sufficient, sustaining and independent. We really see employment and education as a key ingredient to support someone to exit a cycle of disadvantage, that's really where our focus has been. In regard to why we work with young people specifically, I guess we took a really good look at where we were best placed to make the best possible impact with what we have.

We remedied and justified that we can't do everything for everyone, but we can do something for someone; so, let's just make sure that whatever we're doing is the most important thing that we can be.

We thought that we could be an important, critical piece of the puzzle, because we know that retail is the biggest employer of young people in the country, and we know that youth affected by homelessness are so overrepresented in terms of the total homelessness population in Australia. We thought it was a really wonderful marriage to make and thought let's try. We can't do it all, but we can partner with specialists, homelessness services that provide that foundational support and care and that wraparound to be a key cog in the machine, and that next step to help someone exit and build up their confidence in their skills, their self-esteem and all those things to be able to ultimately become self-sufficient. We really focus on that very heavily and intently. Another impact program we run (and I'll talk a bit more about the other impact program which is our Pathway Lights program), is our VIP Day program, which is when we 12 times a year provide a dignified shopping experience to a group of young people experiencing homelessness via a service. We invite them to either come to our store or do outreach, and they get to shop for free and choose five items of brand new clothing, haircuts, food and coffee, et cetera.

That's really a great opportunity to connect with services that exist as well as young people, familiarise them with us and what we do and try and channel hopefully some interest in applying for our Pathway Lights program, which is our retail training and employment program. Those are the two endeavours we have from a direct impact perspective, and then alternatively we also try and raise awareness about homelessness in a really progressive manner and we have created this medium of fashion and streetwear to connect with ideally that younger person and get them giving in a different way and means on their radar. They can obviously make a contribution and really see and feel that impact whilst also getting something for themselves as well that hopefully looks and feels really good. Equally, it can start a conversation with someone who says, 'hey, great t-shirt,' and you can say, 'thanks for that, it looks great, but also it's doing something really important.” That can start a conversation. There's a lot of minutiae behind the architecture of the organisation, but as I say, there are two clear direct impact programs and then there are obviously these other ancillary activities we're conducting to try and get more conversation happening to do things differently fundamentally.

What are some common misconceptions about Australians experiencing homelessness, and how can business more effectively address these gaps?

There are a couple of key pieces of information which I think can hopefully alter some of the narrative often perpetuated through the mainstream media. We know from the last census (and a new census is due to come out to the middle of this year) that on any given night in Australia, over 120,000 people are experiencing homelessness.

I guess one of the biggest insights is that of that 120,000, only around 7,000 or so people are living rough. Most homelessness is actually invisible. The vast majority of homelessness that occurs in Australia we actually don't see.

This includes couch surfing, sleeping in cars, refuges, temporary accommodation, et cetera. That's really the true or the most accurate representation of a homelessness experience, this invisible homelessness. Beyond that there is the next question of what are the contributing factors? Obviously, the lack of affordable housing is number one. Family and domestic violence scores very high as well in terms of that. From a contribution of substance and alcohol abuse, it's less than 5%, and we know that's always symptomatic of a broader issue. If someone is engaging in that, there's another reason why that's transpiring, whether that's mental health, self-medication, et cetera. Unfortunately, there's this stigma and stereotype that people who are experiencing homelessness are under the influence or an alcoholic or whatever. It's just not true; we know this objectively because the information tells us that's absolutely not the case. People are by far and large not violent and aggressive. Unfortunately, yes, there are some instances of people who are heavily under the influence that have been caught at a bad moment and put on the front page of a big publication, and that perpetuates this narrative that people who are experiencing homelessness are aggressive, violent and we should be afraid of them.

As I say, the information that we have, the objective data tells us as well as the real experiences we hear that this is not the case. I guess the other stigma is that homelessness is their own fault. The majority of people don't choose this experience in life. There may be some exceptions, because obviously for some people it's tax free and an existence they are happy to have.But, by far and large, people don't choose this life and it's not their fault. There have been a couple of things that have unfortunately not gone their way, and they're desperately trying to exit that situation. But once you're in that cycle, it's very difficult to remove yourself.

Those are some of the common themes that appear, and I get quite passionate about it, obviously because I just think it's such an injustice how the issue is presented and spoken about.

But then I guess, in relation to the cohort we work with, young people specifically who are experiencing homelessness, of that 120,000 people, 60% are people who are 35 and under, and 40% are people who are 25 and under.

Really, most homelessness, or a significant portion is experienced by young people, and they face these social stigmas. It's so hard to get a job when you haven't had any work experience, where someone has a predefined narrative about who you are, and you don't have a resume. You don't know how to start to put together a resume, you've got no referees, et cetera. Unfortunately, there's a start line and a one hundred metre sprint of life, and people who are in this situation are already severely handicapped and way behind the start line that we all shoot off from. Those are some of the misconceptions, but also some of the realities of homelessness.

What have been some of the biggest barriers you've faced and lessons you've learned from tackling them?

When you undertake a journey like this, you can't precedent or forecast what is going to transpire. It's a truly wild ride, and there are these variables that do appear, and you have those sleepless nights where you think, "oh, if something goes this way, we might not be here tomorrow," and that's often in regard to the commercial side of things. It's tough to run a small business and remain viable in this increasingly unstable economic environment and unpredictable factors. The bottom line is that without any profit, there's no purpose, but you're also trying from the outset to make an impact.

Impact has been our North Star, and that's how we were established. We haven't embedded that down the track over the accumulation of a number of years, from the very outset we've endeavoured to create impact.

Balancing and growing those two sides in harmony or topping up one of the other buckets when it requires it because you haven't been able to nurture that as much as the other, that's the constant challenge. That's definitely where it's been a challenge at times, maintaining commercial viability, making sure that we are on that continual growth journey and being as efficient as we can possibly be whilst also maintaining quality impact. That's another insight; for us with scalability and all those other elements there's opportunity as well, but we're very focused on scope and having a great depth of impact. We really pride ourselves on that, because if we do something that's a band-aid solution or we don't see a project through, it's in no one's best interest. We need to be doing it properly or not doing it all. Often there have been opportunities where there might be a shortcut or a quick win, but it might just be contrary to our value system and fundamentally just the right way to go about things. They've been a couple of pieces, and then obviously when you're working with people who have had a background of considerable trauma, understandably there are challenges that can and do arise. That is to be expected. It's about making sure that we can support people with the capacity we have whilst also ensuring that there's additional supports and capacity around from other specialists to make sure everybody is playing to their strengths to create a quality solution and approach. As I say, if we can't be working in this space and that's what we stand for, then we shouldn't be doing it, and if we can't be doing it then who can be doing it? That is motivation and fuel for us as well.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to a purpose-led people seeking to start their own social enterprise?

As I say, one lesson I have learned is balancing your passion and your logic. I think you need those two elements. Passion does go a very long way absolutely, and it is infectious, but it needs to be coupled with that commercial now mindset. This includes making sure that you're applying a logical application to the solution you are seeking to ultimately provide whilst also operating from that no profit, no purpose lens as well. You must ensure the business has sustenance. Those are some really important pieces of information, and then the other thing is to feed you curiosity.

I used to ask questions like, 'why is something like this? Why is it being done like this? Is there another way?' That's how you can identify an alternative solution that hasn't been entertained before, and find what your logical, unique value add can be.

We don't have to reinvent the wheel with some things if they are working really well, but there might just be an extra ingredient we can put in that can make it more seamless or provide greater value.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently which are creating a positive social change?

One that I'm a big fan of just in this environment of consumerism and minimising our impact is there's an endeavour, Single Use Ain't Sexy, by a fellow called Josh Howard which is really trying to mitigate the use of single use plastics and look at more sustainable options. They have this awesome soap mechanism with a dispenser, and that's just one of their products. I think that's really cool, highly scalable, and can affect lifestyle changes. Sometimes it's like for us, where we're having impact while working with a cohort, we've made a conscious decision to help. But there's other ways we can provide a solution for everybody in their daily lives and households to do something a bit differently and better whilst also reducing their footprint. It's great to see a broader spectrum of opportunities for people, both what you can do for yourself and by extension what's going to help others. Also, what are the contributions that you can make to others as well via supporting initiatives such as HoMie?

What books or resources would you recommend for our listeners to go and check out?

Other than your natural curiosity and following the scent of your nose, for me just in terms of relating to people there was a book called The Five Levels of Leadership which I thought was interesting. It just really holds true to me in terms of as you're growing an organisation and working alongside people. It's by a fellow called John C. Maxwell, and it's a New York Times piece. It talks about these Ps, there are these Ps that you need to work on. By extension with my role being the CEO, there's this association of leadership because of my position, but that's not good enough, right? I need someone to give me permission to lead them, and that's a great spot to be at, because they're actively endorsing that as opposed to it just being a power dynamic. Working your way through to nurturing those relationships is crucial, and this text has just been an interesting resource for me in terms of whether it's a colleague or a friend or whatnot. You've got to water things. The grass is green, but you always have to water things, and you just can't sit idle. I really like the principles that are applied in that text.