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From op shops to AI, Churchill fellows scour the world for ideas
Two Brunswick residents are recipients of the prestigious fellowships
Poppy Searle
JACOB Miller is on a mission to reimagine the future of op shops in Australia.
Having worked in the op shop sector for the past 17 years, the Brunswick resident knows first-hand how vital secondhand stores are – not just for sustainability, but for funding essential community services.
With the centenary of op shops in Australia this year, Miller, will be examining how they can thrive in the next 100 years through a prestigious Churchill Fellowship, which will take him to Europe and North America to look at best practice and bring this knowledge back home.
Miller, who works as senior manager for op shops at Uniting Vic.Tas, is one of two Brunswick residents to have been awarded Churchill Fellowships this year.
Chris Bush, Head of Student Voice and Leadership at University High School, will use his fellowship to also travel to Europe and North America to investigate how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can revolutionise education and address the equity gap in Australian schools.
The Winston Churchill Trust was established in 1965 following the death of Britain’s wartime Prime Minister whose name it honours. Every year, 100 Australians are awarded a fellowship from the Trust and given the opportunity to travel overseas to conduct research in their chosen field.
For Miller, his research will have special resonance given the centenary being marked this year. From humble beginnings in 1925, there are now more than 3000 op shops around Australia.
“Op shops are the backbone of Australian [charity] services,” says Miller (who uses the pronouns they/them).
“But post-COVID, charities are struggling to maintain profitability. They rely on the income from op shops.
“A great example is the Asylum Seeker Welcome Centre on Sydney Road. It’s fully funded by Uniting Op Shops, with no government support. Without op shop revenue, many of the services provided to the community simply wouldn’t exist.”
Over the past few years, op shops have been facing challenges including low volunteer numbers and the overwhelming influx of fast fashion.
“We don’t know what stock is coming in each day, and a lot of it is low-quality fast fashion,” Miller says.
The Churchill Fellowship will give Miller the opportunity to learn how to improve sustainability and maintain the viability of op shops by studying best practices and policies in other countries.
They will travel to Canada, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States to explore how op shops operate there. Sweden has a strong culture of thrifting, which aligns with the country’s widespread focus on sustainability, while the thrift industry in the US operates on a much larger scale than in Australia.
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Miller will explore how op shops function at high capacities and hopes to learn strategies that can be adapted for the Australian market.
They will research innovative ways to harness the growing enthusiasm for second hand shopping and strengthen the role of op shops in supporting charitable work, with a plan on their return to develop a toolkit of resources to assist Australian charities.
“With government funding for charities shrinking, op shops are becoming even more critical as a revenue source. I hope we see more charities investing in second hand retail,” they said.
“What I want to do is be able to support charities so that we can make sure that there’s resiliency in op shops.”
Yet despite all the challenges they face, Miller believes the future of op shops in Australia looks bright.
“Younger generations – Gen Z and Gen Alpha – are embracing second hand shopping like never before,” Miller says.
Using AI to overcome education inequity
Chris Bush is using his Churchill Fellowship to investigate how AI can revolutionise education and address the equity gap in Australian schools.
As a local high school economics teacher, Bush has devised numerous initiatives in curriculum development, student voice, and leadership, and has created an AI chatbot called ‘Mitch’ which was trained to respond to students in the same way a teacher would.
Unlike a human teacher, however, Mitch is able to carry out conversations with Bush’s 47 students at the same time, while speaking to students in their preferred languages.
Mitch is also available at any time of the day or night. On one particular night, Mitch answered 1500 questions from students.
“I can’t help them at 3am, and I am not able to answer 1500 questions, even on my very best day, ” Bush says.
“But AI that is well-trained and safely designed can offer that one-on-one support to students in the moment they need it.”
The potential positive impact of Mitch is evident in the test scores of Bush’s student sample group, which all increased significantly.
Bush will travel to Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom and the United States to research how other countries are approaching the “new world” of AI, and how they’re using technologies to improve the educational experience. These countries all have initiatives to teach educators to use AI effectively and safely. Schools in Finland have implemented AI as triage systems for students to use when they are experiencing distress.
Bush acknowledges that while AI is not a substitute for genuine human connection, it “fills a gap” until a student can connect with a teacher or other school professional.
Ultimately, Bush hopes that his fellowship will fix the “gross inequity” in the education system, where systematic under-funding has resulted in many students not having access to the support they need, and consequently not reaching their full potential.
Chris Bush and Jacob Miller’s Churchill Fellowships will not only enhance their respective fields but also bring tangible benefits back to the local Brunswick community.
They will document their findings and share their insights through public talks, workshops, and conferences.
By presenting their discoveries to industry leaders and community organisations, they hope to inspire meaningful change and encourage the adoption of the best practices in their respective fields, demonstrating that global learning can drive local impact.
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