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Rebecca Archer
Welcome back to another season of The Remarkables – Grant Thornton’s podcast series dedicated to sharing extraordinary stories of individuals who are making significant contributions to their communities.
Last year we interviewed guests who inspired us to drive change in our local communities. We spoke with changemakers at KeepCup, Share The Dignity and Yalari to name a few, and even managed to spend some time with Grant Thornton’s Olympian Brand Ambassador Jessica Fox. We’re excited to bring you another season of interesting content and impactful stories to inspire you throughout 2025.
Our first guest for 2025 is Ifrin Fittock from SisterWorks – an organisation that empowers migrant, refugee and asylum seeker women by delivering economic and vocational training and support. After a substantive career in management consulting, Ifrin discovered SisterWorks while volunteering during her sabbatical. She became the CEO of SisterWorks in 2021 after holding other leadership positions including Head of Social Enterprise, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO. Since starting at SisterWorks, Ifrin’s been driving incredible change, and we’re delighted to have her on the show.
Welcome Ifrin!
Ifrin Fittock
It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Rebecca Archer
All right, so to kick off the episode, we are going to jump straight into a bit of a rapid fire round. Now, I'm going to ask you three questions at random where you can respond with just whatever comes to mind. Okay, so first off, when you were in school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ifrin Fittock
A pilot, actually, but everyone keeps telling me, no, you probably just want to be an air stewardess, not the pilot, because that's just the way people see the roles back then.
Rebecca Archer
And what's been a pivotal moment in your career?
Ifrin Fittock
I think it's really the time when I got introduced to the organisations, to SisterWorks, where I actually never knew any organisations who really work at the grassroots level in supporting the women's empowerment. So, for me, that is really the time where I thought, okay, what am I doing here in this corporate ladder that I'm in, and is there anything that I can do for a better purpose, and I think, that's that.
Rebecca Archer
And lastly, what's the most remarkable advice that you've ever received?
Ifrin Fittock
I actually heard it or read it somewhere. It's not actually given to me, but it resonated deeply to me, even up until now, and it's actually from a quote from Mother Teresa that says, ‘God doesn't want you to succeed, he just wants you to try your best.’
So, I think that's – almost for me – is irrelevant for any aspect of whatever it is that we are doing, especially in the fields that we are doing now, because for us, you know, success is a really high ceiling, but we just have to keep trying.
Rebecca Archer
Fantastic words to live by. Thank you so much for that. Alright, so tell us about SisterWorks.
Ifrin Fittock
So SisterWorks is a not for profit social enterprise with the mission to support migrant refugee asylum seeker women to achieve economic independence through employment and entrepreneurships. We do that through various different initiatives and programs, but anything that we do stem with that belief and understanding that economic empowerment is crucial for women, especially the women who arrive in the new countries and do not know a lot of what's happening in their new home.
Rebecca Archer
So, who would be eligible to join SisterWorks programs?
Ifrin Fittock
So, SisterWorks is open for everyone really, of migrant refugee asylum seekers background, we don't have any visa requirements. It can be any kind of visa, but of course, at the end of the day, they do need to have work rights to be able to work after we supported them. So yes, we have different kind of women who arrive in the country of all sorts of different backgrounds from a different story. But one thing that they want from us or from our support is that they can participate economically here in Australia, and that's what we do…and we welcome all of them.
Rebecca Archer
Are you able to talk us through some of the initiatives of SisterWorks, some of the different programs that you offer?
Ifrin Fittock
We have various different ways in supporting them. We provide vocational…what we call vocational trainings that will actually culminate in either employment through our social enterprises or employment through our employment pathway partners, and I also want to touch on the entrepreneurships where those that do not want to pursue employment, they can look into entrepreneurships and also utilise or go through SisterWorks social enterprises initiatives to market or sell their products.
So, some of the social enterprises that initiatives that we set up or we have is… we have a retail store and an online store. We have a cafe and the catering business from the hospitality point of view. We also have contract manufacturing in packing, sewing and some custom productions that are happening in Springvale. So, anything that we do, all those initiatives that we have, apart from generating income for us to be able to then support our programs. The essential of it is to provide them with the employment opportunities.
For a lot of our sisters, the opportunity to work at our social enterprise is the door opening for them. It's often actually majority of them, the employment that we provide is their first jobs in Australia. So, we're very proud of them. We see ourselves as a steppingstone for them to gain that Australian work experience before they finally move into what we call a mainstream employment.
Rebecca Archer
Can you talk a little bit about what the Crafted Culture program is and also tell us about the SisterWorks shop?
Ifrin Fittock
I forgot to mention that the name of our hospitality arm is Crafted Culture, and within that hospitality arm we have a cafe where we train and employ women who would like to have the hospitality career and can work for our cafes, and then if they then get familiar with it, they can then move on to our catering business. So that's Crafted Culture. We currently have a cafe in Richmond and very soon we are actually opening up another cafe and a bigger catering venue in North Carlton. We're hoping to open that up in around about March. So, we're currently doing the painting of that place, and in regards to the shop, that was actually the first initiative of SisterWorks in having a shop, there's a lot of entrepreneurs or new business owner or micro business owners that do not have that capacity to set up their own store or even pay for a hefty market price, and we become their first launching pad, so to speak, or marketplace for them to offer their products, and through the shop they gain the opportunity to understand what the market situation looks like, what are the trend looks like, and they can then improve their offerings, their service and offerings, and from there we actually then also provide the opportunity for them to sell their products through our online platform too.
Rebecca Archer
What can you tell us about the real tangible impact that your programs have had and are having on women since SisterWorks inception?
Ifrin Fittock
We have, since the day that SisterWorks is incorporated, supported over 3,000 women from 105 different nationalities. So, we're hoping one day we can tick all the nationalities that the United Nations recognise, which is around about 162/163, but the day will come.
So yes, those women, the 3,000 women that we have supported, supported, they have somewhat been in our programs or even still with us right now, working for us, or working through our employment pathway partners, but one way or another, they are being supported either in their social connections or social interaction or social participations, and then gradually increase to their economic pursuit that they would like to have. I think in regards to the impact itself, there's so many way of measuring impacts. I think if you talk to the people from the social sector, one of the – in a way – most acceptable way is the social return on investment, and that is sort of like a methodology, and you've probably seen it in quite a lot of the ways Not For Profit organisations support the impacts by saying a dollar being donated or being invested in us generates $4.20 of social impact – that kind of impact measurement.
But for me, what really resonated as an impact in the work that we do is really not about that numbers. It's how it actually changed people's life, it changed the livelihoods of the women. It's about independence that they gain when they earn their own income – no matter how big or how small. It is about their self-worth; it's about their self-agency. So, for me, what really moves me and what really keeps me in this job on a day to day and to a point, the team too who is putting their, you know, heart and soul and hard work into it, is really the story that comes out from the women of how they feel when they are in employment – especially for them who have never worked in their life before.
As I mentioned, a lot of them come from all sorts of different paths. We have dentists who came in because the war broke out and had to leave the country. We had women that all her life grew up in refugee camps, like never actually seen a high rise building before.
So, we had a very big spectrum of women who would like to gain that independence, and when we see that no matter how experienced you are or less experienced you are, when you achieve that type of self-agency and success of economic independence, that really is a great thing for us to share.
Rebecca Archer
And for you personally, are you able to share any particular moments that have occurred at SisterWorks that have really struck a chord or resonated with you?
Ifrin Fittock
Yes, yes. Look, I think you probably heard from a lot of the social sector leaders where you can have a burnout because you try to carry quite a lot of load and carry a lot of worries for others, but one particular thing that really resonated with me is one of the sisters we managed to place in one of our partners, which is a big bakery productions, and the first time that she received a payment or salary, that day she came back to SisterWorks with two big boxes of donuts that she purchased with her own money, and she came to us and said, I can't give you anything else, but this is the donuts that I made at work and I just got my first salary and I just want to share it with you, and you feel like these people have so little, but they're so generous and it makes you feel like, okay, and this is why I'm doing this. This is like sharing this and hopefully it's about giving more, and if you give, then it keeps giving, and I think that's what I believe what we do. So that moment, I think that's probably the most delicious donuts that I've ever had because it comes with a good heart and intentions and gratitude.
Rebecca Archer
It sounds like it's so fulfilling from your side of things to be able to see that joy in people; the people who, like you say, may have never had a job before or have fled great trauma from their home countries and are trying to get back on their feet. How does that sort of experience compare to what you have gone through or the career trajectory that you've experienced in terms of management roles? And I'm just curious to sort of hear your side of things from a leader's perspective.
Ifrin Fittock
There is no denying in saying it's big shift. I call it a gear change for me or even for some individuals like myself who decided, okay, I think social sector is place for me now, but being in this role, it just makes me realise, and it – this may sounds negative here – but it makes you realise that how blessed and fortunate we are, and because of that, if there's something that we can do to help or to support or even little things that you can give, I think that is, that is something that makes me realise that there is actually capacity to do good. There's actually a huge capacity to do good and support those that are in need and need help, and until I – in a way – got subjected and see it for myself, the stories and the resilience and of these women, you just don't realise it. There's actually quite a lot out there that gives you that opportunity and possibility to do good and share what you have and share what you can.
I think that's really something that I can speak of in terms of the experience from moving from a sort of corporate sector to the social sector, and this is not saying that I am calling all corporate people to move to the social sector because then there won't be anyone, there won't be anyone doing consulting, there won't be anyone, you know, producing all the products that we need, but it's really just making them realise that even within the capacity that they are in at the moment, in their corporate roles that they're in, there is an opportunity to do good. There's always that opportunity.
You just have to look around, you just have to understand what are the challenges out there? And then giving whatever little you have and use the influence you have within the corporate business to then do a good business, maybe work with social enterprises like us when you need catering, for example. So, it's a little things that you do – you still need the catering anyway. You got to order it from someone, you may as well order it from someone that provide the opportunity for the women who never work before to earn a living. So, you know, there's always that option for you to be able to make that wise decision on where to send your money or spend the money.
Rebecca Archer
And Ifrin, what's something that people might not know about the kinds of challenges the people that SisterWorks works with actually face?
Ifrin Fittock
Oh, look, I think the list is long, but one thing that I think we've seen time and time again is without SisterWorks help sort of intervening here, is that there's a lot of expectation for the newly arrived women, whether or not they have a previous experience or without experience in them being subjected to the standard recruitment practice where they say, okay, yes, I would like to hire you, give me your referral. Who would be able to give you a referral when you just arrive in the country? You don't know anyone; you've never worked in your life before.
So, I guess what I'm saying is the challenges… there is the challenges that has been spoken, you know, the new culture that they're in, the English, the mobility they don't have, the transport they need to navigate, the public transport that sometimes running, sometimes not, but, you know, set that aside because we do face that challenges sometimes we do have that same challenges as them, but one thing that really… what we're trying to solve or what we are trying to in a way champion for them is that, that, that first opportunity that come in, I think they're not asking for special treatment, they're just asking for a realistic treatment in terms of them starting their employment here in Australia, and I think it's very important for a lot of the employers to understand also that to support the migration… and the fact of the matter is this women's already in the country and this woman wants economic participation, and the Department of Home Affairs actually put out a report that basically says the successful settlement in Australia is actually driven by one is economic participation and social participation.
So, the way I see it is, it's really a good opportunity to in a way support the whole community by providing the opportunities to these women and in a way adjust the practice, and this is what diversity and inclusion comes in about, in understanding what, what is it that they have, what is it that their challenges, and then let's work with that.
Rebecca Archer
How do these women find you or how do you find them? What are the sort of logistics that are required for you to be able to connect with these women in order to help them move forward?
Ifrin Fittock
I think if you ask me that question about six or seven years ago, it's probably a different answer to where we are now. So, in our last survey, about 80 per cent of the women who came to us came from word of mouth. I think it's from the friends telling the neighbours and telling their cousins and say, you know, I think SisterWorks may be able to help you find a job or even work for them, etc.
At the moment, about 80 per cent of them come from that word of mouth, but we do work with a lot of other support organisations. We do have a lot of referrals that comes from ASRC, Salvation Army, so wherever those communities actually reach out for help, and when, when they say, oh, I'd really like to work and a lot of them know about us and that's how we get the sisters to come to us.
Rebecca Archer
Are there different ways that you try to speak out about your cause and that the impact that you have? How do you kind of raise awareness so that people know who you are?
Ifrin Fittock
It’s a very good question and I don't think we are at the moment very good at it. So, these opportunities of talking about who we are and what we do and what we aspire to do in our vision and mission is really a good opportunity for us.
Yes, just like any other organisation, we continuously want to raise awareness about what we do and we use sort of a lot of different methods, but I think sharing our existence or our stories, you know, for the listeners when they hear about us, you know, it'll be good if you get to know us better and then share about who we are and, and what we do, our businesses, which will generate impact, and I think that is actually a good way also to, to share that awareness to champions who believe in what we do. We obviously cannot afford to have a lot of big advertisement or anything like that. So, any opportunities that you can think of for us, us to be able to in a way share what we do. That'll definitely be a great opportunity for us.
Rebecca Archer
How much support do you get from any level of government? Federal, state, local councils, things like that?
Ifrin Fittock
We receive some sort of funding from them, but the existence of SisterWorks at the moment relies heavily on the business revenue generation that we are doing. And that's, I think we're quite proud of it because in a way we are, I suppose that's what social enterprise is about, right?
We want to run a business but at the same time generate an impact. So, at the moment we push hard on in a way having this revenue generation or our own revenue generations, but we do get huge support from philanthropy. I think philanthropy is our major support at the moment and followed by some support from governments – all from different level of government, the state, federal as well as the local councils that we are in.
Rebecca Archer
And what about corporate support? Have you got any examples of private organisations who have taken on initiatives that sort of partner with SisterWorks?
Ifrin Fittock
Yes, we do have some great partners around and partnerships also in different forms as well. As I mentioned, we have the employment pathway partners where corporates actually agree – and in a way – willing and work with us really closely in employing the women or the sisters that we support, but we also have corporates who provide all kinds of different support, like mentoring for the staff – even just a shout out for Grant Thornton here – we actually did strategy session with them. They actually facilitated our strategy session, which on our own we will not be able to afford that service, but these are the type of corporate supports that we highly valued because we don't have the expertise and they do, and this is about going back into, you know, doing good things, you know, you already have the expertise and a two-three hour strategy sessions will help us greatly, and it's something that Grant Thornton can do.
So yeah, we are very grateful for that, and yes, so there's a lot corporate can do. We do receive support from them. Sometimes we run an event, and the corporate provides sponsorship for the events, which we are very grateful for.
Rebecca Archer
And tell me, are there any exciting plans on the horizon for SisterWorks? Have you got any upcoming campaigns that you can speak about?
Ifrin Fittock
We already touched heavily on the hospitality arms of SisterWorks, which is crafted culture, and then we also have the store where the women can sell their products and some SisterWorks products are also being sold through that marketplace, but we have just recently moved to this manufacturing hub in Springvale, where we have this capacity to actually take on productions or custom productions, and that can be in the form of packing, custom making of a particular product, but one thing that we have just launched as an initiative is called Circular Work and that is – in a way – our contribution. We've been doing this in the past in repurposing products or repurposing items. In fact, a lot of SisterWorks products are actually made out of repurposed materials.
So, we thought, let's make this official, and we have launched this initiative called Circular Work, working with a lot of the corporates again, another corporates partner, who have fabric or textile waste that we then repurpose into something functional that they can use further for either their employees or for their engagement activities.
A good example is we actually repurpose Richmond Football Club textile waste – like the player's jersey, the banners, their promotional materials. We turn them into another functional items that they can use for their community engagement when they go out and meet with the primary school kids and go to the country and spread the work that they do. So, we call it Circular Work, and not only it is going to provide the women with the job training and employment opportunities, but we also help corporates to tackle their textile and fabric waste and turn them into something that they can do rather than being thrown into a landfill.
Rebecca Archer
And it sounds as though you're based in Victoria. Have you got operations outside of that state or are you sort, sort of looking to expand and branch out?
Ifrin Fittock
Not at present. We are still in Victoria. We are currently operational in Bendigo as our regional hub. We have Dandenong and Abbotsford training Centre. We have Springvale manufacturing hub and our cafe and shop, which is in Richmond. For us, it's really about… at the moment, the way we see it is… we are barely scratching the surface here in Victoria. So, generating impact for us is the same whether it's here or it's in New South Wales, but we do understand that there are also needs in other states of our services and there'll be time that we will be looking in to go to and support the women and the sisters from the other states, but for now, yes, we are still in Victoria.
Rebecca Archer
So, to finish off Ifrin, what would be the one thing that you would like listeners to take away from today's episode?
Ifrin Fittock
I think I'm going to go back to that message that I sort of sent out before where there are so many opportunities for you, the listeners, at whatever capacity that you're in, to support a good cause around you. Of course, I will be trying to champion for supporting SisterWorks because you know, when you support women, the impact is a rippling effect to the families, to the communities, etc. But don't think that, oh, I'm not ready to support; there's always something you can do this. It doesn't matter big or small, whatever capacity that is, you know that there's always that opportunity. So, I welcome you to our store, our website. Have a look at what we do. If you can think of any initiative that we can work on together, do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Rebecca Archer
And how would people find that website? Are you able to give us the URL and any social media that you might be featured on?
Ifrin Fittock
Yes, we are in everything. In fact, I think just recently we created a TikTok account. I'm too old for TikTok, but apparently my marketing team is not too old for TikTok so we, we have a TikTok account so SisterWorks.org au we are also have presence in all of the social media channels. Please follow us. You will see some stories, you will see some initiatives, new initiatives that we have and sometimes also some discounts that we put forward when we have too much stock of something. So, keep an eye on it.
Rebecca Archer
Ifrin, thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure to talk to you and hear about SisterWorks today.
Ifrin Fittock
Thank you for having me.
Rebecca Archer
If you liked this podcast and want to hear more incredible stories, be sure to follow and subscribe to The Remarkables podcast by Grant Thornton Australia on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future guests. Please email communications@au.gt.com with your ideas.
Interested in more technical content? Have you heard about our other podcast series Beyond the Numbers with Grant Thornton? We interview our own experts on accounting, business strategy, industry innovation and economic landscape. A link to series will be in the show notes.
I’m Rebecca Archer – thanks for listening.
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