Mettle is the Australian gift box delivery service helping domestic and family violence survivors
IMAGE VIA METTLE
Words by Enya Roberts
A gift that gives back, again and again.
Content warning: This article mentions domestic and family violence.
Choosing gifts can be tricky when you consider the ethical standards that will vary from brand to brand. With the pervasive nature of marketing techniques like greenwashing, it can be tough to find a product or service that feels authentically good – something both great to give and wonderful to receive.
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Mettle Women Inc is an ethical gift delivery service striving to meet these criteria. A registered Australian charity, Mettle employs women experiencing homelessness due to domestic and family violence and equips them for further employment, helping to set them up for a new life.
The brand’s gift boxes are a product of the education and skills taught to survivors during their employment program, offering a quality range of food, drinks, homewares and skincare. I spoke with co-founder and CEO Bronwyn Bates to find out more about the Mettle story.
Tell us about yourself.
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I’m Bron, I’m the CEO and co-founder of Mettle Women, and we are a national gift delivery service that is staffed by women who are experiencing homelessness as a result of domestic and family violence, as well as a crisis fund and a childcare subsidy fund.
How does Mettle operate?
Basically, in Australia, domestic and family violence is the leading cause of homelessness. Very often, it’s dangerous for these women to leave abusive environments because they don’t have the financial means to step out on their own. Mettle employs women who are residing in women’s refuges as a way to give them that foot in the door… [helping them] re-enter the workforce in a safe and supportive environment.
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How and why did Mettle start?
So in Australia, of the women and children who are residing in crisis refuges, over 52 per cent of them have actually been there before. I was working in Melbourne with various women’s refuges when I noticed so many clients were coming back after two or three months of leaving [the] refuge, [often in] much more dangerous situations than the first time. Injuries were significantly worse, and the risk to their lives was very legitimate.
When we started to explore why that was, it was very often because once they left [the] refuge and went into government housing, they didn’t have the financial means to be able to maintain that safety. So I spent a year interviewing survivors around Australia to find out what was happening and why they were returning to abuse or to homelessness.
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Very often, women with children were resorting to sleeping in their cars or shower blocks along the coast in Western Australia rather than returning back to their abuser… the choices were homelessness or abuse. [We] wanted to help them towards financial security. With the help of those incredible women who let me into their lives, we co-designed this model so it was sustainable and factored in all of their lived experiences.
How does the Mettle employment program work?
A lot of the women we have coming through our program have never been allowed to work before. But the number one barrier is that they’re actually not safe enough to be working in public-facing roles. So we have a discreet warehouse in Western Australia that’s withheld from public record.
[It’s] a bit of a stepping stone for them to work in a six-month paid employment program [while] they’re securing… restraining orders, getting their life back on track, and trying to build a life where they are safe enough to then re-enter the workforce in a more public way.
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The gift delivery service is the mechanism we use to train them [for] the work skills that they need. It’s a launch pad so they can design what their employment future looks like. During their time in the Mettle employment program, they have access to study scholarships in whatever field they would like.
… And then the final piece is crisis funds. As you can imagine, a lot of women start with absolutely nothing, and we want to try and remove those barriers to [help] establish financial security.
Can you speak about the curriculum Mettle offers, and how it helps to support and encourage women?
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Honestly, whilst we can provide a curriculum that helps them with the theoretical ways to approach the workforce, these kinds of beautiful epiphanies happen because of the peer support networks they build within Mettle – one of the most beautiful things we see are friendships.
There are so many women in the same situation, but living in different crisis shelters. We partner with six crisis shelters at the moment and when they come in, they realise ‘I’m not alone, there’s someone else who understands the hurdles that I’m up against’. Very often the most beautiful friendships blossom from that, and that’s when the self-belief starts coming through.
What does Mettle mean?
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To face adversity with spirit and resilience – it’s something that these women just remind me of every single day, working alongside them. They come up against the most unimaginable hurdles… and they keep fighting to build a safe life for their kids and for themselves. They demonstrate what our name means every single day, and it’s a privilege to work alongside them.
You can support Mettle’s amazing cause here.
If you suspect you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, call 1800Respect on 1800737732 or visit 1800respect.com.au.
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