Assisting refugees in Sydney to establish a business in the first three-years of settlement: a research partnership between UTS Business School and Settlement Services International
1 Jan 2017 - 31 Dec 2018
Lead contributors for this impact or knowledge exchange:
Collins J
UTS Business School’s engagement with the unique Ignite Small Business Start-ups pilot program run by Settlement Services International (SSI) between 2014-2016 enabled researchers to conceptualise a new “social ecology” approach to interventions, improving the prospects of refugees forming new businesses. Sixty-one new businesses were created during the project “Facilitating New Refugee Enterprise Formation in Sydney” that led to estimated savings in welfare payments of $3.1m. The model has informed decisions by SSI and other organisations to expand initiatives to support refugees start businesses and to assist people with disability become entrepreneurs. Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada will begin a program based on Ignite in Vancouver, Toronto and Winnipeg in 2018.
