Makeables Tingalpa has invited local businesses to help provide valuable job skills and experience to people with disability.

Makeables, an innovation of Multicap, is a not-for-profit disability employer that provides employment, job skills and lasting working relationships for people with a disability by delivering outstanding packaging and supply chain solutions.

Local businesses in need of manual assembly, packing, or finishing services—such as packaging, bag sealing and labelling—are encouraged to contact Makeables to see what services are available to them.

Federal Member for Bonner Ross Vasta today visited Makeables to celebrate their recent partnership with local childcare photography business Little Images.

“I was happy to help connect Makeables with Little Images recently,” Mr Vasta said.

“It’s great to see businesses like Little Images taking up Makeables’ services. Makeables provides life-changing skills and training to its employees and I’m proud to support them.”

Multicap business manager Joshua Walsh thanked Mr Vasta for his assistance and said Makeables employees and Little Images had benefitted from the recent arrangement.

“This work gives our employees the opportunity to challenge themselves and overcome hurdles they may have thought impossible. They contribute and solve issues, and we encourage all of them to practice continuous improvement,” Mr Walsh said.

“Outsourcing has a marvellous, positive impact on business. We enable our clients to take on product lines and explore new income streams, even though they may be at capacity in their existing space or personnel capacity.”

“Our clients build long-lasting relationships, and our supported employees feel valued, enjoy having meaning, and use their new self-confidence to grow in their personal lives.”

Little Images owner Leigh Farley said Makeables had done great work for them assembling a promotional mailout.

“We run campaigns sending out letters to prospective clients, and when we heard about Makeables and what they are doing we wanted to be a part of the program,” Mr Farley said.

“Makeables employees folded letters and brochures for us, and inserted them into a windowed envelope, along with a chocolate drink so people could read over everything with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

“It makes such a difference to their lives, being able to get back into the workforce with Makeables, which is helping so many people. If there is anyone else out there with a business—big or small—that could use this service, I would recommend they give Joshua a call.”

Some of the competitive advantages of using Makeables include:

• Charges are typically half of the employment costs clients would have if they do it themselves;

• By using Makeables facilities, clients can scale up without the capital outlay for warehousing space;

• Makeables can operate clients’ machinery but with their charge this is typically 40–50% lower than a casual employee;

• Supporting people with a disability gains ethical value and builds corporate social responsibility.

Some of Makeables’ current activities include processing cotton tags and flock tags for the agriculture industry, operating machinery fabricating steel handles for Thunder box who supply tool boxes to Bunnings, and applying labels for Youfoodz.