Fitted for Work

Fitted for Work helps women experiencing disadvantage get meaningful work and keep it.

At Fitted for Work, we believe women are a catalyst for creating a more socially cohesive and prosperous society, which is why our work is so important. We help women to develop their confidence and achieve economic security.

Our programs and services stem from a belief that when women are fitted for work they are fitted for life. We know that when women have hope, confidence and economic security through work, the flow on effect is transformational, both to their families but also to society as a whole.

Fitted for Work prepares women for work mentally and physically and provide them with practical skills required to take their place in the workforce.

Our approach, which involves coaching and mentoring, nurtures women throughout their journey to ensure they feel able to stay in work. We assist them to overcome their present situation and move forward courageously.

We work with a number of referral partners, providing their clients with evidence-based, high quality, responsive, targeted programs.

Disadvantage can happen to a woman at any time in her life.

We welcome all and any women experiencing adversity to benefit from our services and we treat them all with respect and empathy.

Our clients are survivors of domestic violence, single parents, women with disabilities, mature-aged women, young women, and women from culturally and diverse backgrounds.

We believe in women.

We know that with the right support and skills, women can transform their lives, and the world.

Thanks to the generosity of philanthropic individuals, trusts, foundations and corporate partners we are able to offer the following programs free to the women who walk through our doors:

WOMANKIND

At Fitted for Work, we believe a woman needs to be ‘fitted for life’ in order to thrive in her workplace. That’s why we’ve developed the WomanKind program.

This integrated suite of services teaches participants to focus on their overall wellbeing so that she can maximise the opportunities presented through work.

The program consists of woman to woman training, mentor support, guest speaker events, job readiness and presentation workshops. This suite of services can be packaged to create tailored programs to inspire, and support women through their job search journey. WomanKind replaces the Transition to Work and Staying Employed programs.

SHEWORKS

SheWorks provides placement and post-placement services to businesses seeking to attract and retain quality female employees.

With access to a diverse candidate pool of over 23,000 work-ready women, our specialist employment advisers work with businesses to match skilled and trained female job seekers to their business’ needs.

• Amanda Carlile, General Manager Client Services & Enterprise
• Anne Lennon, General Manager Social Investment & Social
• Enterprise Development
• John Patitsas, General Manager Business & Finance
• Louisa Shillingford-Brown, General Manager Marketing & Communications

• Mary Crooks, Chair
• Michael Cohn
• Joanna Wriedt
• Maree Davidson
• Wendy Stops
• Marcus Fazio
• Wendy Brooks
• Sarah Wrigley
• Matt Gaffney

You can bequeath money as a specific amount or a percentage or the residue of your estate. You may wish to discuss with us the type of gift you intend to leave to Fitted for Work to ensure that we are able to apply it appropriately to our work.

We recommend that, where appropriate, you discuss your wish to make a bequest to Fitted for Work with your professional advisers, family or loved ones so they are aware of your intentions.

Fitted for Work receives no recurrent government funding. Any funding we receive makes up less than 2% of what we need. We are able to keep our services free to the women who need them thanks to trusts, foundations and philanthropic individuals.

We thank each and every one of these donors for their generosity.

If you’d like to help a woman step out of disadvantage and into work by making your own private donation, we’d like to thank you too.

Why not hold a fundraiser?

Running a Fitted for Work event at your place of work or club is a great way to engage your employees and members in an activity for a good cause.

It costs Fitted for Work $115 to put one women through our personal outfitting and interview preparation service, so it would be wonderful if you could add a fundraising element to your event – e.g. silent auction, raffle.

Every dollar raised truly does make a difference.

Become a mentor.

Fitted for Work provides individual online and face to face mentoring support to women participating in our Woman to Woman training program.

The mentor program exists to provide support and positive role modelling to enable mentees to:

• prepare resumes and job applications;

• practice for job interviews;

• develop skills and competencies;

• establish career goals; and

• gain increased feelings of self-worth and accomplishment.

The mentor program provides the mentee with:

an increased ability to support mentees in dealing with the
challenges of preparing for and gaining and maintaining employment;
opportunities to contribute to the life of another; and
a network of mentor peers
Donate Clothing

One of the free services we provide to women experiencing disadvantage is a complete personal outfitting and interview preparation service. This special service is provided at our boutiques located in Melbourne and Parramatta. The supply of clean, quality work-appropriate clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories is a critical component of the success of our service.

Our aim is to dress women in an entire outfit that is professional, suitable for interview and carefully co-ordinated to make clients look and feel good about themselves. We are always particularly in need of small and large sized clothing (66% of the women we dress are at either end of the spectrum, size 6-10 or size 18+).

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the organisation. Without our small army of volunteers, we would not be able to deliver our services to the thousands of women we help each year.

Fitted for Work is always on the look out for women – and men – who would like to donate their time to helping the women who use our services on their journey to employment and beyond.