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With the help of UTS students, the Women’s Housing Company (WHC) has scoped out a new program to help tenants secure work.

Students from the University of Technology, Sydney’s (UTS) Business School aimed to identify the best, evidence-backed approach to support tenants into employment. For an outline of the joint project, please read https://www.uts.edu.au/news/social-justice-sustainability/housing-and-jobs-home-where-start. The collaborative project has informed a new WHC Employment Engagement Program that will form part of our Tenant and Community Engagement Strategy 2020-24.

Findings supported a holistic and staged Employment Engagement Program with linking and support at the core. “The aim is to overcome barriers by helping women connect to and mobilise resources better, by linking them to existing services, strengthening ties to training and jobs programs, [and] setting up a support group,” said management consultant student, Deirdre O’Neil.

“What we want to do is to try to coordinate better pathways,” confirmed Chief Operating Officer Kath Cain: “give people somewhere safe and affordable to call home, and [many] will be able to move onto training, education and employment.” 

Best of all, news came through that one project participant had felt sufficiently empowered to secure a job shortly after, while another two connected with training and employment programs as a direct result.