This high-vis vest does more than protect a construction worker at a Melbourne building site.

It also helps protect Suzi Amare, just kilometres away, who made it.

“This job helps me with finance,” she says, smiling. “I’m not going anymore to Centrelink.

Arriving in Australia from Ethiopia just three years ago, the single mother working at Assembled Threads has learned to use large sewing machines, works around her son’s school hours, and has completed a qualification in textile production. 

And what she’s a part of — a social enterprise — is about to get a lot bigger.

‘Creating real impact’

Social enterprises are for-profit businesses that tackle a social problem at the same time as doing their work. 

“These are businesses that exist as any other business does. But they exist specifically to create social or environmental impact,” says Tara Anderson, the chief executive of Social Traders — a company that certifies social enterprises.

There are more than 500 certified social enterprises in Australia, part of a field that has more than 12,000 businesses using the model.

Ms Anderson’s company suggests the field is solidifying, with the number of certified businesses growing at 16 per cent a year, and the amount spent with them is rocketing by 36 per cent a year.

The work they do, and the people they employ, vary depending on the business.

“So they might be working with people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, families, children, communities, youth, people escaping the justice system, those that need some extra support to empower themselves and create better futures,” she says.

But they’re all creating real impact: providing training and employment to vulnerable and marginalised groups and building skills and careers.

And it’s growing.

Businesses spent more than $843 million with social enterprises the company certified in the past six years.

By 2030, that’s tipped to be $5.5 billion.

Well assembled

In a former supermarket next to high-rise residential towers that house thousands of newly arrived migrants and vulnerable communities, Edwina Walsh oversees workers at Assembled Threads.

The social enterprise makes and sells protective clothing nationwide, providing employment and training to people who’ve struggled to enter the job market.

Ms Walsh has been in the textiles industry her whole career. She and the industry call it by a fond name: “the rag trade.”

After decades when Australia’s local manufacturing industry was destroyed by cheaper offshore suppliers, she’s slowly building it back up.

“Having a purposeful job actually does transform someone’s life,” she says, surrounded by workers cutting and stitching.

“When I got into this, I was more concentrating on local production. But I’ve seen firsthand how it transforms people’s lives.

“You actually are moving someone from welfare into a purposeful job where they’re getting paid, they’re getting respected for their skills. They’re contributing to society.”

But it is not a charity, and most aren’t set up that way. 

“There’s a misconception there,” she says. The company can’t receive tax-deductible donations and doesn’t get philanthropic funding.

Good business

Some government contracts now mandate a certain percentage must be spent on products from social enterprises.

Additionally, large corporates with environmental, social and governance policies that promote positive environmental, social and governance outcomes are doing the same.

“Businesses are spending more with social enterprises too,” Ms Anderson says.

“There’s been $843 million spent with them in the last six years. We want that to grow to $5.5 billion by 2030.”

Building right

Building industry behemoth Icon is devoting a percentage of its massive procurement budget to supporting social enterprises.

While specific conditions in some government contracts enforce it, Icon social procurement manager Nicole Donnison says extending the concept more broadly comes down to the company wanting to do more with its money.

“As a large construction company Icon has a responsibility to invest in the communities that we are working in,” she says.

And with millions of dollars worth of products being used on construction sites, diverting even a small part of that stream has a big impact.

“We are able to provide a hand up to people in the community who need it the most, simply by thinking differently about the decisions we make day-to-day,” she says.

In many instances, the cost of using a social enterprise like Assembled Threads is more expensive than the lowest-cost mass producer of products. But the company sees broader benefits.

Broad benefit

With the experience she’s gained, Ms Amare is thinking about opening a clothing shop for her local Ethiopian community.

“So now I want to sew for them, I want to open one,” she says, laughing.

It’s something Ms Walsh of Assembled Threads wants to promote — by getting more government and big business contracts to specify a proportion of spending on social enterprises.

“You actually are moving someone from welfare into a purposeful job where they’re getting paid, they’re getting respected for their skills.”