Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins today visited the SisterWorks Abbotsford Empowerment Hub to meet women taking part in the Crafted Culture Hospitality Employment Pathways Project.

SisterWorks received $100,000 in the Victorian Budget 2023/24 to support60 women to gain hands-on vocational training and employment opportunities through the project.

Since 2018, the Labor Government has invested more than $1 million in SisterWorks programs to economically empower migrant and refugee women, as part of the Government’s work to address structural barriers to women’s participation in the workforce.

Training in the hospitality program takes place as an eight-week course at the SisterWorks’ Abbotsford Empowerment Hub and Crafted Culture Café in Richmond, which officially opened in April last year.

This builds on the Government’s funding for SisterWorks’ social enterprise expansion project, which last year supported the renovation of Crafted Culture Café’s commercial kitchen, expanding the café’s catering service and training in food production.

Quote attributable to Minster for Women Natalie Hutchins

“We are proud to support these programs which not only help women from migrant and refugee backgrounds find work and expand their skills, but may inspire them to start up their own initiatives, run businesses and advance their leadership aspirations.”

Quote attributable to Parliamentary Secretary for Jobs Bronwyn Halfpenny 

“We are so pleased to invest in the results of these programs for local refugee, migrant and asylum seeker women.”