SEDI video stories

Ability Enterprises is a work-integrated social enterprise here in Toowoomba on the Darling Downs.

Our mission is to get employment at award wages for people who've struggled to either keep or get employment.

We consider the group that we work with, which is a really wide cohort, what we call the "missing middle". It's people who are perhaps not served by high-need services, but are just not going to make it right now in open employment either.

Ability Enterprises is not a disability service. We have general contracts, we have full pay, so everybody is on an equal starting point.

Someone who's been out of the workforce for a while, like a single parent, or someone who maybe has come from overseas whose skills don't necessarily translate to us.

But like a lot of social enterprises, where we lack funding is to do capacity and capability building within our management team.

So we used the SEDI Grant to do a review of our structure, to develop a new theory of change, to vastly improve our social impact measurement framework, and also to pull together our strategy for the next five years.

It just opened up thoughts and opportunities that I hadn't thought of before and made me look at things in a different perspective and our future growth opportunities.

I came in as a gatehouse operator, just as a casual employee. Then I took on more roles, so I became site support on a weekend. Then I stepped into a site supervisor role, and then last year I took on the role of Head of Operations.

I moved down and I pretty much was starting all over again, so I needed a new job, somewhere to live, and finding this job within a week of being here was the best thing that could have happened to me.

I look forward to employing new people that need it as well. The feeling of belonging, the feeling of being, I guess, needed somewhere, enjoying my job.

We have one team member who has now moved on to open employment, who said to me one day, "You've helped me be so much more than I thought I could be."

She's never had a job for more than three months in her whole life. She had been with Ability for four years.

Thanks to the SEDI Grant, Ability Enterprises now has a three to five-year strategy that allows us to grow our services and employ more people locally.

HoMie is a streetwear label, nonprofit and social enterprise, and we exist to support young people affected by homelessness or hardship to be more work-ready and better prepared for their futures.

So here at HoMie, we run three social impact programs. We've got our VIP program where we invite young people to come in and shop for free. We've got our Pathway Alliance, which is eight months of paid employment and education. We also have our 10-week Retail Ready program, which is 10 weeks of paid employment in the HoMie store.

The evidence tells us that our programs are needed, and they're needed all across Australia. We just ran a pop-up in Sydney the other week where 33% of people presenting to specialist homelessness services are aged 15 to 24. They're presenting alone as well. There's a really desperate need up there.

So the support from SEDI has given us the confidence to continue to build and scale this program. We know it works. We know it works for young people, and we know it works long-term.

One of the stories that really sticks out to me is a young person that has been involved with HoMie in quite a number of different ways. This young person actually received a hoodie during our Hoodies for Homelessness campaign a number of years ago, subsequently came along to a VIP day and had a VIP shopping experience with HoMie, and then came through the Pathway Alliance and was able to spend eight months working with us, honing their professional skills and their confidence.

On the other side of all of this, they are now participating in advocacy work for HoMie. So this young person has contributed to our organisation on so many levels and in so many different ways, and is such an extraordinary advocate both for themselves and for the work that HoMie does.

My name is Sarah. I am the Assistant Manager of the Emporium Store and also a HoMie alumni.

Back then, I was just hoping to get some retail experience and move on to another job. Since then, I've been working alongside other young people as well, training them. And it's been such a full-circle moment since I first started the program.

HoMie is a safe place for myself, for staff members, for young people, and for customers. It's a place where there's no judgment, it feels like a family, and I'm just really happy to work here.

So here at HoMie, we're really hoping to scale our impact over the next five years, supporting more young people affected by homelessness and hardship, whether that be in Sydney, Brisbane, or other cities.

And the funding from SEDI has really bolstered our monitoring and evaluation framework to continue to scale our impact.

ReLove is a really simple idea of connecting lots of pre-loved furniture and homewares that are otherwise destined for landfill to people in need.

People come to our ReLove free store to choose everything that they need to restart, and we deliver the very next day.

So ReLove very much is an accidental charity. We just set about to try and help five women. Fast forward five years, that five women has turned into over 9,000 people.

We're often supporting people who have fled violence, who have left homelessness, and need a full house of furniture and homewares to start again.

I see the change in people, not just the smile that they give, but the idea that they have hope and you're giving power back to them. You're giving them something to look forward to. And having my team deliver it just makes it all the more special.

For every client, when we get to the homewares and seeing them relax, they've done the hard part of choosing their furniture, all the practical bits, and then they come in and they choose decorative items. They just want a beautiful vase, they want a cushion, they want something for their kitchen counter, and the confidence grows.

It means that you can get a good night's rest, you can put your children to bed, you can cook a meal, and you can get up in the morning and feel refreshed and actually go and partake in all the things that we expect people to do in society: go to work, go to school, go and be part of an educational training program.

Try and do that if you can't even have a good night's sleep.

The SEDI Grant has helped ReLove in three main areas. Firstly, with a huge amount of support for our IT system, so it now allows us to report social impact, the environmental impact, and inventory reporting.

Secondly, with marketing help for our social enterprise, ReStory.

And thirdly, to create a new business plan to look at scaling and take ReLove to the next level.

And we're really looking to scale this social enterprise right across Australia. There is so much furniture and homewares in the world that's otherwise going to landfill. And there are many more people and families who need our support with choice and dignity.

The SEDI Grant has allowed ReLove to really look at our model and plan for the next stages of growth.

SisterWorks is a not-for-profit social enterprise that supports refugees, asylum seekers, and migrant women to achieve economic independence through employment and entrepreneurship.

Our social enterprise comprises multiple business units, including a manufacturing hub here in Springvale and a hospitality hub where we run a café and catering business in Carlton North. We also deliver our programs through our Dandenong Hub and Carlton North Empowerment Hub.

I have been in Australia since 2023, and I'm working at SisterWorks.

I'm sewing cases, covers, hats, and covers for seats in trams.

I found out about SisterWorks last year. After I went through a divorce and my father passed away, I felt completely lost about myself and about my future. I was alone at home. I wanted to find work, but I couldn't.

The SEDI Grant allows us to consolidate SisterWorks' business-to-business manufacturing model by laying out the strategy, looking into the financial modelling of it, as well as building the marketing strategy to reach and target the customer base that we want.

Scaling the B2B manufacturing model of SisterWorks means we will be able to provide more employment opportunities to our sisters.

SisterWorks is very useful for me and very helpful. Right now, I'm very happy to work at SisterWorks.

I want to improve my English speaking, and I want to have my own business. For me and for other women, this means a lot. It helps us become more confident and gives us the ability to earn money to support ourselves and our families.

The friends I have made here make me feel safe and more confident.

In a few years, I would love to see a warehouse like this in every corner of Australia, where we are able to provide employment to women from refugee, migrant, and asylum seeker backgrounds.

The SEDI Grant allows us to dream and strategise for that future.