Empowering new Australians with financial independence

With a vision for a world where all migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeker women are economically empowered, social enterprise SisterWorks has supported more than 3000 women on their pathway into work. With backing from Westpac Foundation, it’s set to support many more. 

 

From the day grassroots organisation SisterWorks officially opened its doors in 2013 to support 25 women who were new to Australia and learning English, its purpose has been grounded in the belief that work empowers women. 

 

“When women are empowered, they can make a positive difference to their own lives, their families and communities,” says Ifrin Fittock, CEO of the Melbourne-based social enterprise that has offered holistic employment and entrepreneurship support to more than 3000 migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women – affectionately known as ‘Sisters’.  

 

“Our approach is very different from mainstream employment service organisations,” says Ifrin, noting that many of the women who come to SisterWorks have fallen through the cracks of other services that don’t offer the same understanding of their needs. 

 

SisterWorks has fostered a pipeline of job opportunities for its ‘Sisters’, both within its own businesses and by partnering with mainstream employers in well-suited industries – such as hospitality, warehousing and retail. To give the ‘Sisters’ the best opportunity to fill those roles, they take part in job-readiness training programs developed by SisterWorks with support from Westpac Foundation.  

 

“Through the training, we give the Sisters a very practical understanding of Australia’s employment system – such as how superannuation, tax and awards work – and also the basics they need to know depending on their industry of choice,” Ifrin says. “If they’ll work in a warehouse for example, we'll go through the fundamentals, like the need to wear a hard hat and visibility vest and to walk in designated safety paths; if they’re going into hospitality, they'll come out with the minimum certificates needed, like food handling or responsible service of alcohol.”  

 

Ifrin says the training is carefully tailored and compressed – the longest course taking 12 weeks – to enable the women to successfully start their first employment in Australia as quickly as possible. “The most important part is that a job is waiting for them at the end,” says Ifrin, who lists L'Oreal, Accor Hotels, Amazon, Delaware North and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries among SisterWorks’ 70-plus employment partners. 

 

In the past year alone, almost 300 participants graduated from training, 58 percent of them going into employment or launching their own businesses. 

 

In addition to the job pathways into mainstream employers, SisterWorks’ own businesses – which generated almost $3.3 million in revenue last financial year – offer transitional employment to the ‘Sisters’, enabling them to earn wages and the skills and experience they need to join the workforce. 

 

While its original handicraft marketplace has grown both online and via its Richmond-based retail store and adjacent café, SisterWorks catapulted the expansion of its business earlier this year with the opening of a manufacturing hub in Springvale, southeast of Melbourne. Made possible with WISE grant collaborative philanthropic funding including from Westpac Foundation, the new facility has doubled its production capacity enabling SisterWorks to strengthen its financial resilience by forging new business contracts, such as a partnership with Yarra Trams to reupholster its tram seats.

 

“It’s vastly expanded our ability to bring in more business which means far more employment opportunities for the Sisters,” Ifrin says.