The Currency Of Kindness

Turning the belief that accountants care only for profits on its head is Lisa Mead, a single mum of one who is using her accountancy skills to help support at-risk children

- Monique Mckenzie

The Kiwi dream of a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence and domestic bliss was how Lisa Mead envisioned her life to pan out. But life isn’t a movie, and the 31-year-old found herself raising her now almost 10-year-old son, Dakota, on her own while his father was behind bars. When Dakota’s father was imprisoned in 2017, Lisa began researching the statistics around children of prisoners and found the results to be horrific, including higher than usual rates of youth suicide, poverty and low education. The most jarring: children with a parent in prison in New Zealand are far more likely to become prisoners themselves when they’re older.

After witnessing Dakota constantly breaking down and crying about his situation, Lisa knew she couldn’t just sit back and watch. It forced her to think, ‘What skills do I have, and how can I use them to create a positive impact?’ A chartered accountant, she decided to start Social Currency, a Christchurchbased tax, accounting and consulting

firm and social impact business that strategically partners with charities and low-decile schools, committing 10% of sales and up to 50% of profits to creating resilience in vulnerable Kiwi kids.