About the program
The Advancing the Economic Wellbeing of Women SII funds a portfolio of five job-focused social enterprises. The investment aims to:
- Advance the economic wellbeing of women
- Better understand the role and impact of job-focused social enterprises in delivering outcomes for the people of NSW
- Trial SII and outcome-based contracting as an approach to supporting job-focused social enterprises
The five social enterprises supported include:
- Global Sisters supporting single mothers receiving the Parenting Payment Single or Carers payment to start their own business
- Humans of Purpose supporting women who are survivors of domestic and family abuse into technology enabled, flexible work
- Success Works Partners supporting women with experience of the justice system to gain and sustain employment
- The Bread and Butter Project supporting women who are refugees into baking careers and other employment
- yourtown supporting young women (aged 16-24 years) who are long-term unemployed to gain and sustain employment.
Where we are now
Service delivery is now in its second and third year, with more than 600 women referred across the programs. To date, over 50 women have achieved 13-weeks and 26-weeks of sustained employment.
Evidence and interjurisdictional insights
OSII conducted interjurisdictional research to support the development of the Advancing the Economic Wellbeing of Women SII.
This includes research into:
- outcome‑based employment programs that support people facing complex barriers to work - Review of outcome-based employment programs - June 2022 (PDF 1.34MB) (PDF 1.34MB), and
- social impact investments that support women facing disadvantage and Indigenous peoples - Literature Review of SIIs Supporting Vulnerable Women and Indigenous Peoples - November 2021 (PDF 1.26MB) (PDF 1.26MB).
This research helped inform how different outcome-based programs define, measure, and pay on employment outcomes to support sustained employment and economic participation.
Social Enterprise Capability Building Program
To broaden the support of women-focused social enterprises and respond to their need for capability building, OSII commissioned two social impact intermediaries – Social Enterprise Finance Australia and Social Impact Hub – to provide tailored capability building support to help women-focused social enterprises develop, grow and maximise their social impact for women. The $1.29m Social Enterprise Capability Building Program was delivered over 2 years from August 2023 to June 2025. Learn more about the Program's outcomes and our reflections.