“I dream big. I’m the type of person that actions things,” smiles Joe. “I don’t just talk about it – I action it.” 

In March 2020, Joseph Tepuni-Fromont had a vision – to support troubled youths from disadvantaged communities and build an organisation that helps them with their mental well-being, life skills, education and job opportunities. The initial concept was to help young people who were incarcerated. Unbeknownst to Joe, a worldwide pandemic was about to turn everything upside down. “I’m the type of person who will always blame myself before external factors”, Joe explains. COVID had thwarted Joe’s plans – so he needed a new one. 

Amid the chaos of COVID, a new vision was born. Joe saw the lack of early intervention services and shifted his focus to creating programs for young adults at-risk of entering a detention centre. What started as an idea is now a thriving not-for-profit charity – Everything Suarve or ESuarve.

“ESuarve is a place where young people can come to find their light again and to look after their mental health. A place where there’s no judgment, and people have similar stories to them.”
Joe knew he would need help to create the organisation he envisioned. Thanks to a strong recommendation from McInnes Wilson Lawyers, SRJWW came on board to support ESuarve’s growth and development, making it the successful organisation it is today.

Starting back to front

“I started the organisation because I had a very similar story to many young people that have come from either disadvantaged or troubled backgrounds,” says Joe. “All around me were drugs, alcohol and gangs. As I got older, a lot of that played a big part in the choices that I made. It’s one of the reasons why I do the work that I do today.”

But the journey to becoming a triumphant business owner wasn’t easy. While Joe knew he could relate with people on a deeper level, it was the business aspect he knew he would struggle with. “My gift is connecting with young people and sharing my experiences,” describes Joe. “But when it came to the professional side, I had no idea what I was doing. Starting the business, knowing about accountants, auditing and having bank accounts, I had no idea what I was doing.”    

“For the first two years, our president and I were sleeping in our warehouse because we had very little finances,” Joe remembers. “We weren’t paying ourselves because everything we made went into the program and the kids.”

That’s when SRJWW came on board. “I know I started everything back to front,” Joe grins. “It’s only three years later that I’m putting all these professional steps in place. They should have been done first, but you learn along the way.”

“The team at SRJWW certainly made it easy. Knowing they’re willing to do it pro bono took a lot of pressure away. And it allowed us the ability to grow. We are super thankful for the team at SRJWW.”

And the silver lining to not knowing what he was doing? Having no reservations. “I had no doubts because I probably didn’t understand the repercussions, failures, or what might happen,” Joe laughs. “But with SRJWW standing behind us, helping and guiding us, it certainly instilled a lot more faith in what we’re doing and helped us understand that we were doing things right.”

The importance of being compliant

While ESuarve was run on passion and hard work, Joe recognised that their lack of administration and structures could cause problems in the future. Now that ESuarve was achieving amazing results, having professionals set up the correct systems was important to future-proof the organisation. “Esuarve had policies and structures put in place that the team at SRJWW recommended,” Joe beams. “We then started receiving government grants, which allowed us to grow as a business. We could also employ a couple more workers, which eased the load.”

“If you think grants are easy to get, it’s not. If you think people will support it because it’s a not-for-profit, that’s not necessarily true. So by becoming compliant, it allowed us to put professional structures in place to ensure we’re ticking boxes for others who want to support us as an organisation.”

What the future holds for ESuarve

Joe highlights ESuarve’s amazing work with pride. “We’ve helped over 140 young people and have over a 90% employment success rate. More proudly, we had only one person that has reoffended out of those 140 since coming into our program.”

So what does Joe have planned for ESuarve in the next 24 months? A peaceful retreat where underprivileged youths can “disconnect away from their environment.” A place where they can “come and do ice baths, breathwork, meditation, and learn how to cook.”

“Many of our young people don’t have families. Some are homeless, and some are in residential care. We’ve got young ladies that are in domestic violence shelters. The biggest thing and problem we faced was being able to provide a safe house for them.” Joe elaborates. “We’re now in partnership with a tiny mobile home business to start building tiny homes inside our program. That way, we can give back to social and emergency housing.”

While Esuarve started as Joe’s dream, he didn’t get the charity to where it is today alone. By implementing several policies, SRJWW has helped Joe gain potential new partnerships that will make Joe’s dream a reality. “We’ve got partnerships with local counselling services. So many people are coming on board now because of the results we’re getting,” Joe explains. “We have some big corporates willing to support and hop on board. The Gold Coast Mayor is looking for some land for us now.”

“It doesn’t take me, or one person, to help these young people. It takes the people that are supporting us professionally,” Joe beams. “We’ve accomplished many positive things with the support of our auditors, lawyers, accountants, Alceon Qld and SRJWW. We wouldn’t be able to achieve all of this having these important teams behind us.”

Partner with a supportive, knowledgeable team to help realise your vision. If you’re looking for a proactive, honest and effective accounting and business advisory firm to team up with, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us here today.