Once upon a time, a group of refugee women met in an English language class in Collingwood and decided to pool their resources together and begin selling crafts at weekend markets. In 2013, one of the women, Luz Restrepo, decided to formalise this venture and named it SisterWorks.
“We eliminate differences, as we are all women who strive to have better lives, united in that purpose, we are sisters,” explains CEO Ifrin Fittock. “As an organisation we are working to change lives for the better and provide our sisters with work opportunities – hence we are SisterWorks.”
SisterWorks is a not-for-profit social enterprise supporting migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women into employment, with strong ties to the Greater Dandenong municipality. In 2018, they opened a hub in Dandenong in response to heavy demand from women in Melbourne’s south east for employment support services.
“The mission for SisterWorks really grabbed me,” says Ifrin.
“I have three girls myself. I came to Australia when I was 23 years old from Jakarta and I experienced challenges when I arrived to the country. I could see the benefit of SisterWorks – the new arrivals to this country, who are often lost and struggling, they can become victims of a system that is very difficult to navigate.”
Since inception, SisterWorks has helped more than 3,500 women from 105 countries. The organisation has a retail business, including a shop and online store where sisters sell everything from hand-crafted jewellery to artworks. The organisation also has a hospitality arm in Carlton, which includes a café and catering business.
They also opened a manufacturing hub in Springvale in 2024. The manufacturing work is really varied, ranging from contract sewing for fashion labels, to screen printing and reupholstering. Currently SisterWorks is reupholstering 80 per cent of Yarra Trams seats.
The manufacturing hub employs 30 to 40 women at any given time. Those who can’t be employed internally through SisterWorks are lined up with external employers through employment pathway partners around the municipality.
The ethos is very much, “local jobs for local people." Ifrin adds, "We have very strong employment partners who are happy to work with us and provide employment to the women. We have L’Oreal, Amazon, Priceline, Holiday Inn in Dandenong, and several others. We see ourselves as very embedded in the community in Greater Dandenong – we work with local partners and our manufacturing hub is in Springvale, so we see ourselves as a place-based community.”
The organisation welcomes new employment partnerships, and Ifrin invites interested businesses to contact SisterWorks.
