Towards recovery from pandemic unemployment
Assembled Threads is proud to announce that we’ve been awarded a grant from the Department of Families Fairness and Housing (DFFH) CALD Communities Taskforce for two new pilot projects. The grant is designed to assist those severely affected by the pandemic who are still facing significant long-term barriers to employment, and we’re tackling the issue with skills training and economic opportunity to help pave the way back to prosperity.
Our two pilot projects are based in Norlane (Geelong) and Keilor (Brimbank). Participants are accessing skills training support and production techniques to produce environmentally sustainable textile products. Geelong launched first on 26 October and we’ve employed nine local women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds across the globe. We launched the second hub in Keilor on 6 December we’ve employed eight local women and one local man. Each participant is in the middle of the challenging but rewarding journey of developing skills for a new career.
The hubs are designed to create economic and employment opportunity through fostering different skillsets over eight weeks. In the first two weeks, participants embark on a national skills training program delivered by our partner, Holmesglen Institute, one of the largest providers of vocational and higher education in Victoria. Participants then have six weeks of bespoke commercial sewing skills training, where they learn necessary garment construction techniques and participate in small trial production runs.
Our participants benefit greatly from the acquisition of permanent and transferrable skills, and from the economic opportunity that will assist them to overcome the barriers to creating a livelihood. But the rest of the community is also benefiting from the work they’re doing at Assembled Threads: we’re passionate about growing our local circular economy, which is why our project involves creating products sourced from locally manufactured and climate positive fabrics.
We’re currently crafting a range of scrubs, which will be comprised of either repurposed pure textile waste from the factory floor, or fabric made locally in Geelong. Like the products in our high-vis workwear range, the garments can form part of a circular economy, where they can be repurposed at the end of their lifespan instead of being fed into landfill. Our initiative has been gaining a lot of attention: you can find our feature in the Geelong Advertiser and follow the ABC for further instalments of our story over the summer.
We’re continuing to expand our service offering and expand our impact, so if you’re interested in manufacturing for promotional garments, bespoke uniforms or other designs, please consider supporting our business and help us bring hope and a future to more marginalised people, and to foster sustainable and ethical manufacturing in our local community.