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Financial wellness

Women's Financial Capabilities Project

The Women’s Financial Capabilities Project (WFCP) is a three-year project by led by WIRE, in partnership with Good Shepherd Australia and New Zealand, First Nations Foundation, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Women with Disabilities Victoria and Financial Counselling Australia. The project is supported by the Victorian Government.

This innovative project aims to improve the financial capabilities and economic security of women across Victoria, with a particular focus on First Nations women, women from migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeker backgrounds and women with disability. In the program, we identify the intersecting barriers faced by women in achieving financial security and economic empowerment, and work to find best practice ways to address these on an individual, community and structural level.

The WFCP includes a five-part project plan as a result of the research, co-design and practice to date. It’s a holistic project plan that addresses key barriers to women’s financial capability including:

  • access to information;
  • appropriate services and programs;
  • gaps in pathways, referrals and services; and
  • culturally appropriate, accessible content and program delivery.

Some of the project outcomes include:

WFCP Knowledge Paper

This knowledge paper captures the evidence-base of financial capability building for women, with a specific focus on marginalised groups of women including First Nations women, women with a disability and migrant, refugee and asylum-seeker women.

Lens on, hands on: An Intersectional Guide to Financial Capability Program Development

Watch the launch event here:

Click here to read more about the Guide.

Financial Self Care Project

First Nations Foundation have developed an innovative set of financial wellness resources – including video, an email series, a social media campaign and web resources – for and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. You can find out more about the Financial Self Care Project here.

Money Management Programs web resource

The Money Management Programs web resource was launched in May 2021. It’s a centralised web resource for finding free, relevant and timely programs and events to help you make the most of your money and learn how to make better financial decisions. The web resource is designed to create greater access and ease of referrals to available financial education programs. The format and symbol was co-designed with both professionals and lived experience advocates.

Featured on ASIC’s MoneySmart website, you or your clients can use Money Management Programs to:

  • find current and upcoming money management programs near your area;
  • browse by topics, delivery style and/or specialist areas, including financial abuse, bilingual educators and accessibility; and
  • join face-to-face or online learning options.

Professional Development Suite

In the WFCP, we recognised that workers in financial capability, financial services, community service and referral areas have an unmet need for specialist knowledge and cultural competencies to improve outcomes for women. By training workers in key cultural competencies and the core challenges women experience, we can provide better financial capability to all women in our community accessing those services– from referral pathways to program participation.

As part of the WFCP in 2020-21, we provided free training based on the identified needs of cross-sector workers. To date, there have been five offerings of the award-winning Purse Project: Recognising Financial Abuse, as well as a booked-out delivery in August.

We also designed new training to address the desire for more learning on intersectionality and barriers to economic security for women. Intersectional Economics: An introduction to why gender and Intersectionality matter for women’s economic security provides an understanding of intersectional, feminist approaches to financial capability and economic security. The program also identifies the systemic barriers that impact the financial wellbeing of women. You can download the training resource list here.

Stay tuned for more details on these project outcomes – join our mailing list to receive the latest updates or follow us on Facebook. 

If you have any queries please email consultancyservices@wire.org.au

 

 

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