Inclusive Partnership Program for Disadvantaged Women

https://reversegarbage.org.au/

Reverse Garbage is committed to combating unemployment among community members who encounter significant barriers to traditional employment avenues. We do this in a number of ways; through our volunteer program and our partnerships with local employment focused not-for-profits such as Dress for Success and The Social Outfit, training volunteers by partnering with Department of Communities and Justice through our Work Development Orders Program (WDO’s) and Community Service Order Program (CSO’s) who are experiencing hardship or disability. Through our volunteer program, we have witnessed remarkable outcomes, with a significant number of volunteers transitioning into paid staff roles. This success is attributed to our emphasis on comprehensive training and support. We also work with The Social Outfit to provide paid sewing opportunities for their staff, who are refugee women facing disadvantage, to make shopping bags from donated materials for our retail space and clothing for women in the prison release program. Our tailored approach to supporting and training community members transitioning to mainstream employment or self-employment is tailored to the needs of the individual. We provide a range of support including; practical training in either retail, warehouse or education, flexible work conditions, and access to our networks. We have found that successful transition to mainstream employment or self-employment requires careful planning and ongoing support. As a social enterprise we have an environmental social and economic impact which we would like the opportunity to build capacity whilst also giving back to the community by offering 6 placements for work experience to 3 women from the Social Outfit, and 3 Women from Dress for Success to support transition them into the workforce. We have experience with working with people experiencing hardship such as Department of Communities and Justice Community Service Orders (CSO’s) and Work Development Orders (WDO’s) providing a non-judgemental, safe and discreet space for offenders to work out their community service and pay off their fines. Our ability to connect with people from all backgrounds especially those experiencing hardship makes us well placed to support people experiencing barriers to employment.As charitable organisation we have limited capacity to grow our organisation. This grant would provide not only retail work experience for the successful applicants, but also provide capacity for our organisation to help achieve our mission.