Vanessa Brettell On Economic Empowerment For Female Migrants and Refugees

Vanessa Brettell Stepping Stone Co-Founder.png

Vanessa, with her partner Hannah, were jointly named the 2025 Local Heroes at the Australian of the Year Awards for their work as social entrepreneurs.

Stepping Stone in Canberra is a work integration social enterprise which employs and trains women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds who face multiple barriers to entering the workforce.

The concept was inspired by Vanessa's grandmother who migrated to Australia from India in the 1960s. Their success in Canberra follows three years in Colombia where they started a cafe which hired and trained more than 40 youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Vanessa also is a foster carer, sits on the Canberra Region Tourism Leaders Forum and the Humanitarian Committee Canberra.

Vanessa discusses the power of social enterprise in creating economic opportunities for migrants, refugees, and women, and how the business for good movement can continue to adapt and drive meaningful change.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off, could you share a bit about your background, what introduced you to the world of social enterprise, and what led to your work today?

[Vanessa Brettell] - I grew up in Canberra and both of my parents were migrants. My mum came to Australia as a small child and my dad in his late twenties. I had a lovely childhood living not only in Canberra, but also in Mexico, Darwin, and other areas.

I was fortunate enough to travel while I was still young and I visited many countries, both developing and developed.

This led me to do my university degree in a Bachelor of Latin American Studies at ANU. As part of that degree, I got to live in Colombia for a semester as a university exchange. While in Colombia, I visited the city of Cartagena, which was quite shocking actually.

It was a beautiful city with a fascinating historic centre, but it also had a lot of inequality. I saw tourism coming in and the wealth not being distributed at all. I knew something could be done there.

I'd seen the model of work integration social enterprises in Southeast Asia, and I had hospitality experience through high school and university. I felt like I could use the skills I'd gained to help those who didn’t have as much privilege as I had growing up.

That's what sparked the idea for Stepping Stone in 2015, ten years ago now. We never expected that little idea to have grown into what it is today.

What kind of work does Stepping Stone do and how is it empowering migrants, refugees, and women through employment?

Stepping Stone is a work integration social enterprise. That means we put the mission of providing employment and training opportunities for migrant and refugee women at the forefront. The cafe and other businesses we have are more of the means for achieving that.

We have two cafes in Canberra, in Dixon and Strathnairn, and we also offer catering services. Across the two cafes, we have almost forty employees; around seventy percent are refugee women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Most of the women that work with us have never had an opportunity to work in formal employment before. It's really important for them to have a safe place to grow and develop their skills, gain confidence, and feel more included in Australian society.

We want to develop that sense of belonging here.

Why is economic empowerment an important factor in supporting refugees and migrants in Australia and how does Stepping Stone contribute to that impact?

When refugees and migrants are arriving in Australia, they're really excited and full of hope to start a new life in a new country. They want to get stuck into growing their new networks, developing skills, and making Australia their home. However, they’re often faced with new barriers. Maybe their English proficiency isn't high enough or maybe their qualifications aren't recognised here.

Having a job is such an important part of their settlement process.

It facilitates working with others in a team environment and gaining those social connections, while also being treated in a dignified way. your voice is heard and elevated.

It's crucial, for the women that we work with, to have economic independence and financial freedom.

They have the ability to be active participants in their settlement process. They don't want to receive handouts and free benefits; they want to earn the money themselves. We provide an environment at Stepping Stone where people can earn while they're learning.

Often people can't afford to study without earning an income. Instead of having to make that choice, we've created an organisation where they can receive training while also earning an award wage, which is building up their financial security as well.

Recently you won the local hero Australian of the Year Award. What do you think needs to be done to help the business for good movement grow and become business as usual?

This is something we're really passionate about and we're excited to have a bigger platform after receiving this award and speaking to more people. Especially talking to people who might not have known about us or social enterprises, which was shocking to me beforehand.

We really want to spread the word of social enterprise, and we believe that’s the most effective way to create positive outcomes.

It's an efficient model for government to support as it targets social benefits and environmental outcomes.

WE Need an acknowledgment from the government on the work that social enterprise is doing. We need them to help elevate our work, our voices, and the lessons we're learning as well.

Considering the fact that most social enterprises are small, they can adapt to the needs of their individual communities. Being place-based is really important at all levels of government. Having policies that benefit and enable social enterprise to operate with less barriers and more advantages should be the goal.

A for-profit business is just so old fashioned. In 2025 to be running a business that's only focused on profit seems crazy to me. It could easily become part of legislation that all businesses need to have a social or environmental mission at the forefront their decision making.

Big corporations or businesses that have environmental sustainability frameworks are important, but really, they should be integrating those things deeply into their existing operations. It shouldn’t be a side thing outsourced to social enterprises or charities to meet the diversity and inclusion outcomes they're trying to achieve. It should be done within their businesses.

Just having this conversation with more people, even people who aren't necessarily in the social impact space, and increasing that awareness is integral to our mission.

What advice would you give to an aspiring social entrepreneur looking to create an impact driven business focused on uplifting marginalised or disadvantaged communities?

I always say people should start by spreading their idea. Tell your friends and family about it. It creates this snowball reaction and you end up becoming accountable to this idea you've put out into the world.

People might check in and ask, what's happening with that idea of yours? You also never know if who you're talking to might connect you to an opportunity that’ll lead somewhere else.

It's important to vocalise your ideas without being embarrassed by them. Tell people you have this dream, tell them what motivates you and what you’re passionate about.

You also have to talk to as many people as you can who interact with those communities. It is important for people with lived experience to be part of the organisation, but it can also be really difficult if you're dealing with that lived experience while trying to help other people. I don’t believe you need to have lived experience to be able to help a community.

You just have to be willing to learn, listen, be empathetic, and understand the needs of people. You should involve the community in some of the decision making, but you shouldn't feel like you're not eligible to run a social enterprise that helps a community you’re not necessarily part of.

You need to have that social license, and you can gain that by talking to the community and being involved with them.

A lot of people are afraid they might do the wrong thing, but there's lots of ways you can educate yourself, and that shouldn't be a reason to not try and start.

Are there any other inspiring projects or initiatives that you've come across recently creating a meaningful social change?

I'm really inspired by STREAT, which operates in Melbourne, Victoria, and what they have been doing for over twenty years now. Being in the space for that long, they've been able to create a blueprint to help other social entrepreneurs and work integration cafes understand how an effective and sustainable model operates.

They've also spread into the food systems and circular economy sphere. They're reaching out and are now affecting lots of different communities in different ways. It's really inspiring to see how projects grow over time and how they take the lessons learned and adapt them accordingly.

I also really love The Social Outfit in Sydney. They're working with migrant and refugee women as well, with a focus on textiles and fashion. That's a beautiful social enterprise.

To finish off, are there any books or resources you would suggest for our audience to check out?

Social Traders just released their RISE report, and it's an analysis of about twelve thousand social enterprises in Australia. It's a really good place to start if you want to know more about what the current industry looks like. It has some good case studies that you could learn from as well. I'd definitely check that out regardless of if you're new to the space or not.