Search Results for: yarnin money

Systems Change

Posted on August 24, 2021 by - ICAN News

ICAN is leading the charge in addressing changes to banking systems for people in prison. In a recent submission to the Australian Bankers Association (ABA) Code of Banking Practice Review, ICAN highlighted five practical recommendations that the banking industry can make to address current inequities. The recommendations tackle the structural barriers witnessed first-hand by ICAN financial counsellors, Sharon Edwards and Alex Price-Busch, in their fortnightly outreach service to Lotus Glen Correctional Centre (LGCC).

“People entering prison, often come with debts which they have limited information about,” said Sharon. “Their ability to obtain information to deal with the debts is near impossible, due to the many barriers faced inside. Unresolved debts grow through additional fees and interest charges while in prison, resulting in an unmanageable debt upon release.”

A 2019 Queensland Productivity Commission Inquiry (p359), reported on the link between unresolved financial issues and stress for people inside prison, and the compounded risk of reoffending because of increased indebtedness. ICAN Operations Manager, Jillian Williams highlights banks, and the products and services they provide are critical tools for managing the essential needs of day-to-day life. 

“Banking products and services remain crucial for people incarcerated,” said Jillian. “We are trying to amend systems that will allow people in prison to keep managing their financial lives while on the inside. What we really need from the banks is for them to acknowledge that people in prison, and those transitioning out, experience vulnerable circumstances and amend the Code of Banking Practice accordingly.” 

In a growing movement for change, Financial Counselling Australia, and the Thriving Communities Partnership, have championed the impact of financial issues on people in prison in their reports; Double Punishment: How people in prison pay twice and Fostering Financial Stability for People in Prison Project. As highlighted in these reports, people entering prison will come with many and varied debts which they have limited information about, and which will often go unaddressed or unresolved. 

Through a partnership with LGCC, in Far North Queensland, ICAN Trainer, Majella Anderson and Financial Counsellor, Alex Price-Busch deliver our financial capability program, Yarnin’ Money, once a month. The participant stories and comments shared in group training or one-on-one financial counselling sessions, best characterise the need for systems change:

“It is such a relief to know you can help. I had no way of letting them know I was here. I was worried I could lose my house.”

“My bills and things have been stressing me out so much, I couldn’t sleep.”

“I worry about my family on the outside. If I can’t deal with my bills and things, it will only make it worse for them.”

“I really want to straighten everything out while I’m here so I can have a fresh start. I want to be able to rent a place for me and my son and buy a car. If I had a car, I could take my son to footy and I could get out of the ‘Bronx.’”

We hope that our submission can affect meaningful change to the systems impacting people in prison. You can read our submission to the Code of Banking Practice Review on our website at: https://ican.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Submission_ABA_Banking_Code_Review_2021.pdf

It takes a village

Posted on June 22, 2021 by - ICAN News

Pictured Above: Pearl Turner and Robyn Shepherd-Murdoch in front of the Mornington Island Airport

This month, we reflect on: the expression it takes a village to raise a financial counsellor and the road we travel together with our students and graduates, on their journey to become practicing financial counsellors.

When Pearl Turner, Financial Counsellor and Team Leader with Save the Children’s Financial Wellbeing program, asked ICAN to deliver Yarnin’ Money to Gulf communities: Doomadgee, Normanton and Mornington Island over the last two months, we reflected on how far we’ve travelled together with Pearl in her journey from financial capability worker who rocked up to the ICAN booth at the national financial counselling conference, to becoming a financial counsellor and now delivering financial counselling to three remote communities and heading the financial capability team as Team Leader, in the Gulf of Carpentaria for Save the Children.

Yarnin’ Money Trainer Majella Anderson first met Pearl in May 2017, when Pearl requested information about ICAN’s Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program and the Commonwealth Bank scholarships available to Indigenous students seeking to undertake the Diploma of Financial Counselling. Reflecting upon her time undertaking the diploma, Pearl remarked at the ongoing support she received from both ICAN and ICAN Learn, that helped establish the financial counselling role she currently holds.

“When I was finishing my diploma, I had to do 220 hours of Learning in the Workplace. But because I live in Normanton which is quite remote, there were no senior financial counsellors who could oversee my placement work,” said Pearl. “So Robyn from ICAN Learn, came up to Normanton to help oversee my Learning in the Workplace hours.”

In addition, ICAN offered on-site learning (at our Cairns office) for Pearl, who flew down to Cairns regularly to sit with our financial counsellors during client sessions, which helped Pearl in the early days of her placement.

“I flew down every other week and sat with the financial counsellors at ICAN, observing them doing work with clients,” Pearl recalled. “Watching other financial counsellors work with clients helped me to get my head around the financial counselling process.”

“It was a big learning curve and there were times during the Diploma of financial counselling that I just felt like giving up, because I work in a remote area, but the support I received from Robyn really helped me to get through it all,” she said.

ICAN Learn’s Teaching, Learning & Course Manager, Robyn Shepherd-Murdoch spoke about her time heading out bush with Pearl in May 2019. “I was asked by ICAN Learn to oversee some of Pearl’s placement in her agency at Save the Children in Normanton, to support her to achieve her placement hours and to oversee her case work,” said Robyn. “Over two weeks, we travelled to Normanton, Doomadgee and Mornington Island to work in all of Pearl’s regular outreach sites.”

“Those two weeks were a real eye opener and things just really started falling into place for me,” said Pearl. “With Robyn’s help and from my diploma course, I learned how to put my financial counselling cases together, do my case notes and how to support my clients.”

“With the knowledge she received from the course, Pearl is able to better support the community,” Robyn said.

ICAN continues to provide support to Pearl in her role as financial counsellor and team leader of the financial capability team. Over the past two months, the Yarnin’ Money team delivered financial capability training to her staff and to the wider communities, in Normanton, Doomadgee and Mornington Island. 

“I’m proud that we have an ongoing relationship with Pearl and the communities she services,” said Majella Anderson, Yarnin’ Money® Trainer. 

“We’ve come a long way together since Pearl came up to our booth at the FCA conference in 2017 and then joined the Mentorship Program to start her journey as a financial counsellor.”

Introducing The Yarn

Posted on February 24, 2021 by - ICAN News

Welcome to our new E-News publication ‘The Yarn’. The Yarn is replacing our existing E-Newsletters and will provide you with a monthly summary of the best stories from our community. For our readers, you will still find the same content that you have subscribed to – we are just streamlining the way we deliver our news, into one monthly roundup.

The Yarn will continue to provide financial well-being sector news, training opportunities and financial counselling, literacy and advocacy stories from around the country.

In 2021, we’re building our YouTube channel ICANTV1; starting with our new series, ‘Out and About with Alex’. In the first episode Alex Price-Busch – our up-and-coming Financial Counsellor – explores how Yarnin’ Money, ICAN’s financial literacy program is supporting a Cairns-based Indigenous/First Nations high school employment program.

If you’d like to see our stories as they happen, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, ICANTV1 and connect with ICAN and ICAN Learn on social media. You can find ICAN on Facebook: icansocial , Twitter: icansocial and LinkedIn: icansocial and ICAN Learn on Facebook: icanlearnAU and LinkedIn: icanlearn. 

ICAN Connect kicks off in Weipa

Posted on January 22, 2021 by - ICAN News

ICAN and Weipa Community Care join forces to provide financial counselling and capability services for Weipa and surrounding communities.

A new partnership for Cape York communities

ICAN is excited to announce our new partnership with Weipa Community Care thanks to the generous funding provided by the Ecstra Foundation. Our collaboration will give remote Indigenous communities across Cape York access to much needed financial counselling services through our ‘ICAN Connect’ program.

ICAN Connect allows Weipa Community Care staff, who are on the ground in Cape communities, to act as intermediary supports for ICAN financial counsellors and people receiving much needed financial counselling services.

Jillian Williams, ICAN Operations Manager, explains, “The two agencies will trial a new model of financial counselling, with a greater emphasis on connecting people via online video conferencing.  We aim to reduce the multiple barriers to services experienced by remote Indigenous communities, barriers which were compounded when communities were locked down as a result of Covid-19.”

L to R: ICAN’s Majella Anderson, Carmen Hegarty and Sharon Edwards.

First stop, Weipa

To kick off our partnership, Majella Anderson and Carmen Hegarty from ICAN’s Yarnin’ Money team recently travelled to the Cape York communities of Weipa, Mapoon, and Napranum to deliver Yarnin’ Money training to Weipa Community Care staff and clients.  ICAN Financial Counsellor, Sharon Edwards also joined the trip, providing face-to-face financial counselling support to clients.

The team spent the first day in Weipa taking the Community Care staff through the Yarnin’ Money Service Providers training, that provides an understanding of financial literacy education.  

Majella Anderson, ICAN Learn Training Facilitator, said, “the training is also a great way of raising awareness about everyday financial traps, such as how a client’s seemingly harmless ‘small’ loan can quickly escalate into a huge debt, and what causes that to happen.”

Resilience and determination

The next stops on the itinerary were Napranum and Mapoon, where the ICAN team delivered ‘Yarning Money with the Mob’ training – a financial literacy course for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community residents – to Weipa Community Care clients.

Participants found the budgeting tool gave them a new way to think about money, with common feedback such as ‘the training has made me think before I do or accept something I’m not sure of’; and ‘I want to make my own budget to keep track of my spending and encourage other families and friends to do this training’.

“This trip shows once again the financial hardships that people in remote communities experience on a daily basis, and the financial decisions they are constantly making to ensure the money lasts”, said Majella.  “It also highlighted how families and communities have to survive those financial hardships by working together and sharing their resources, whether it’s food, housing, or transport.”

“The resilience and determination that I saw and heard in people’s stories made me appreciate my own life and acknowledge and appreciate how I have had overcome my own financial hardships.”

A shared vision

Jillian Williams said, “the partnership between ICAN and Weipa Community Care Association recognises the mutual benefits of coordinated service delivery between independent organisations under a shared vision, to support greater access to financial counselling services for Cape communities.

We are also excited to have one of the fantastic Weipa Community Care team undertaking the Diploma of Financial Counselling (CHC51115) through our registered training organisation, ICAN Learn.

ICAN is looking forward to working closely with Weipa Community Care staff to improve the financial lives of people in the Cape communities.”

Looking after the Locals

Posted on September 18, 2020 by - ICAN News

Yarnin’ Money with the latest Qld Police Recruits

QPS Recruits with the Yarnin’ Money Team

Peter Ingrim, Protective Services Training QLD Coordinator for the Queensland Police Service (QPS), recently approached ICAN to run Yarnin’ Money with the Mob training for six new Protective Services Officer recruits from Palm Island.  The intake of these six local recruits at a special ceremony on Palm Island is a Queensland first.

The training was held at the QPS Recruitment Centre in Townsville on the 2nd and 3rd of September, with the recruits travelling from Palm Island to attend the workshop.

ICAN’s Yarnin’ Money Financial Literacy program is specifically designed for service providers and residents in remote Indigenous communities. It aims to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to make informed financial and consumer choices.

Traditional Storytelling

Carmen Hegarty, ICAN Yarnin’ Money Facilitator, explains, “The uniqueness of Yarnin’ Money training is that it uses the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander way of addressing their money issues without being intrusive.  It’s about taking people on a journey and having a yarn – storytelling – which is our traditional way of learning.  By using the Yarnin’ Money Wheel tool, photo narrative, and timeline exercises, we provide a culturally-safe environment to discuss financial and consumer issues openly.  What makes it special for me is that as a facilitator, sharing my own story with participants is a powerful way for us to relate to each other and make a strong connection.”

ICAN Operations Manager, Jillian Williams, said “This program gives people the opportunity to think about their relationship with money and the different ways that relationship has been shaped, not only by their individual circumstances, but also by historic and present day injustices, policies, and costs of living, which are outside their control. Critically, Yarnin’ Money helps people to see their strengths and resilience within all of this and provides the tools and guidance necessary to assist them in taking control of their money. All of this is done through a framework that recognizes and places culture at the heart of the conversations.”

“It was great to meet the Yarnin’ Money team and to observe significant elements of the Yarnin’ Money program”, said Peter Ingrim from QPS.  “I had a yarn with our recruits a few days after the training, and they all really enjoyed it and the style in which it was delivered, so a big tick of approval there because that can make or break a program. The group got paid today, so we had a chat about how they put some of the strategies they learnt in place, right from the very beginning.”

Sharing Knowledge, Changing Lives

Carmen said, “being a part of this Yarnin’ Money journey for some time now has made me more aware of how this workshop can and does change lives for the better, mine included. Watching and receiving feedback from the participants really gives me so much joy. To see them add the tools to their everyday lives and share their learnings with their families is so rewarding. It has a ripple effect – share it with one or more people, and they share it with others.”

Carmen said, “being a part of this Yarnin’ Money journey for some time now has made me more aware of how this workshop can and does change lives for the better, mine included. Watching and receiving feedback from the participants really gives me so much joy. To see them add the tools to their everyday lives and share their learnings with their families is so rewarding. It has a ripple effect – share it with one or more people, and they share it with others.”

“The Yarnin’ Money workshops help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders build a better future for themselves, their families, and the generations to come.”

You can read more about the unique QPS initiative on Palm Island here.

ICAN teams up with QSuper for NPA community week!

Posted on February 23, 2020 by - ICAN News

The Team!

What’s the best way to engage remote community residents with their superannuation? 
Break down some of the barriers to access and bring your services to them! That’s what QSuper did when it spent a week with community peoples up in the Northern Peninsula Area (located at the top tip of Cape York, Queensland), on January 20th-24th, in partnership with ICAN financial counsellors, the Indigenous financial inclusion team at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand and lawyers from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS).

The QSuper mobile service week comprised a coordinated approach to service delivery and is a great example of how services can work together to achieve greater outcomes for Indigenous peoples living remotely. Each service provided coordinated support to NPA residents in a triage approach. When people came in to visit the services during the community days, their issues were first heard by a support worker who then directed them to the best possible service. Additionally, if financial counselling or legal issues were identified during a session with QSuper, ICAN financial counsellors and ATSILS staff were on-hand to address the matter(s).

“It was a great experience to travel to the Northern Peninsula Area with the ICAN team for the ‘Meet the Services’ week. ICAN’s connections on the ground helped to facilitate the trust of the people from the NPA communities, so we were able to hit the ground running,” said Graeme Marrinan from QSuper.

“Being able to work with our members in their own communities, gave QSuper insight into some of the issues and barriers met by our members. We had many queries, financial hardship matters, consolidations, binding death benefit nominations, death benefit claims and lost super searches,” said Rhonda Coghlan, QSuper Regional Business Development Manager. “We further assisted members to access lost super and roll over pre-existing super accounts into one. We were also able to lend a hand for non-QSuper members, by helping them call their own superannuation companies with their queries.”

For Eddie Buli, Indigenous Financial Inclusion Lead at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, the community days means greater access to much needed services, such as Good Money’s No Interest Loans (NILS). “The biggest thing for me being involved with the QSuper Community Days, is that we bring our services collaboratively to our Indigenous communities in the one place, in that one time for our mob to access,” said Eddie. “Sometimes our mob don’t know that a service exists or how to access them, being in a remote area. It can be daunting to deal with services over the phone, so having that face-to-face contact like we did in the NPA was a great way for people to both address their financial issues and learn more about getting access to NILS loans.”

Comprehensive community initiatives that involve a number of organisations – like the NPA service week with QSuper – have a number of benefits. First, is the ability to be able to address the financial and consumer issues facing many NPA community residents, whom do not often have access to financial counselling. 

“We very quickly realised that there was a huge demand,” said Sharon Edwards, ICAN Financial Counsellor. “Word of our services quickly spread throughout the five communities and there was a great community response during the week.”

Second, is how each service can complement each other. With the coordinated services seeing more than one hundred people throughout the week, ICAN financial counsellors were able to support the local ATSILS workers by assisting in twenty-eight financial counselling-related matters including assisting people to get their pre-paid power cards replaced, telco and other debt issues, and vehicle and related finance matters. Yarnin’ Money staff also delivered two financial capability training sessions in Bamaga, with thirty-six CDEP participants and staff from the NPA Family and Community Services Corporation, attending over the two days.

“I really enjoyed our trip to Bamaga and the surrounding communities, assisting in sharing information on Car Smart, budgeting and promoting our Financial Counselling service, said Unaisi Buli, ICAN Financial Counsellor. “I look forward to continuing assisting and advocating for our Clients that have attended the Community Day event in NPA.”

For local NPA resident Lionel Solomon, bringing the coordinated financial counselling services to the NPA was welcome.“It’s a good thing!” said Lionel. “I only get to Cairns once every two years and it’s too hard to fix these things when you’re living in the bush.”

ICAN will be providing a series of place-based community days in 2020. Keep up to date with our e-news to find out when we’ll be heading to your community!

Watch our 2019 Annual Report video here!

Posted on December 22, 2019 by - ICAN News

ICAN and ICAN Learn’s 2019 Annual Report Video

2019 was another big year for ICAN and our subsidiary registered training organisation ICAN Learn, in moving towards achieving our vision of Empowering Indigenous Consumers and developing the financial counselling and capability sectors. The Annual Report video is a review of our achievements throughout 2019. 

Key highlights from the video and our year include:

  • ICAN’s community engagement and stakeholder partnerships to deliver Yarnin’ Money Days in Yarrabah, Mapoon, Palm Island and Thursday Island.
  • ICAN’s financial counselling service on Palm Island, as part of the services we deliver to support the Palm Island Class Action Settlement Scheme. Noteworthy is the precedent set for ICAN’s financial counselling service, when the Federal Court Judgement allowed for a payment for extended financial counselling services on Palm Island to assist people who were receiving payment under the Settlement Scheme.
  • ICAN’s top five case-types in 2019 included: Debt management, Access to No Interest Loans, Superannuation issues, Contract Disputes and a combination of the above…
  • In 2019, ICAN launched two reports: 
  1. ICAN’s 10-year Anniversary Report – an overview of ICAN’s work in the field(s) of assistance to alleviate consumer detriment, education to make informed consumer choices and consumer advocacy services to highlight and tackle consumer disadvantage experienced by Indigenous peoples.
  2. The Yarnin’ Money Report 2019 – a detailed account of ICAN’s Indigenous financial capability program and methodology for strengths-based learning and community engagement in financial capability training.
  • ICAN Learn celebrated the graduating students of two Victorian programs, 90+ new scholarships and the development of new Trainers to teach the Diploma of Financial Counselling!
  • ICAN commenced development of its Yarnin’ Business, Yarnin’ Jobs program, by undertaking a Canadian study tour to learn about the intersection of financial empowerment programs and employment outcomes. We’re excited to roll out the program in 2020!

Thank you to our Readers, for being a part of the ICAN/ICAN Learn journey in 2019, and we look forward to another great year in 2020. See you in the new year!

ICAN’s Canadian Study Odyssey Part 2

Posted on July 21, 2019 by - ICAN News

SEED Co-Director and host Louise Simbandumwe discusses the sustainable livelihood continuum and aligned CED/Financial Empowerment programs.

In Part 2 of ICAN’s Canadian Study Odyssey, the team visits host Community Economic Development (CED)/Financial Empowerment organisations, SEED (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and Momentum (Calgary, Alberta). ICAN Co-Founders Aaron Davis and Carmen Daniels were keen to learn more about the intersection of CED and Financial Empowerment programs at SEED and Momentum after a brief fact-finding tour in late 2017. In a program delivery context, ICAN Operations Manager, Jon O’Mally was interested in further exploring the practical application of behavioral economics and asset mapping within financial counselling and capability services. 

Information sharing

In the spirit of sharing, the ICAN team presented to SEED, Momentum and partner organisations on topics ranging from Indigenous engagement, Australia’s financial counselling and consumer regulatory frameworks, Yarnin’ Money (financial literacy program) and evaluation methodologies. Organisations in both Winnipeg and Calgary were expressly interested in learning about the scope of work undertaken by financial counsellors, the professionalisation of Australia’s financial counselling sector and its consumer advocacy role.

What our Canadian sister organisations do well

Brenda Purschke, Momentum Financial Empowerment Manager and Aspire’s Carlen Scheyk discuss collective impact approaches in Calgary with the ICAN team.

Both SEED and Momentum highlighted the importance of collaboration and the integration of Financial Empowerment services within broader Community Economic Development networks. Each organisation was part of a larger collective impact movement designed to move people through the Sustainable Livelihoods continuum (see below). The ICAN team met with partner financial counselling, social enterprise/business development programs/organisations and were blown away by community building social enterprises, BUILD and Fuse 33 Makerspace.

The utilisation of the Sustainable Livelihoods model within a financial empowerment context was an identified asset for both SEED and Momentum. Sustainable Livelihoods is a strengths-based program that concentrates on a participant’s assets over deficits, mirroring ICAN service values. The framework is key to empowering individuals and guiding them through the Sustainable Livelihoods continuum. The ‘Side Hustle’, was also discussed as something that should be included in the income generation mix. A side hustle is any type of employment undertaken in addition to one’s regular income generation. A side hustle is generally freelance or piecework in nature, providing a supplementary income. Side hustles are often things a person is passionate about, rather than a typical day job worked in order to make ends meet. Our learnings from Canadian Financial Empowerment organisations will contribute to the development of our Yarnin’ Jobs and Yarnin’ Business programs, sponsored by the Ian Potter Foundation.

What ICAN and Australia does well

The benefits of Australia’s national consumer credit regulation and regulators became evident after listening to our sister financial empowerment organisations across three Canadian provinces; all with their own credit legislation. The ICAN team spoke extensively about the interaction between financial counsellors and Ombudsman services, such as the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) – the financial services ombudsman, and regulators, such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The team also learned that Canada’s version of financial counselling operates differently than Australia’s. SEED partner, the Community Financial Counselling Services were impressed with Australia’s financial counselling frameworks and the work undertaken to professionalise the sector including state association membership, diploma training, professional development and supervision.

Where to from here

ICAN CEO/Filmmaker, Aaron Davis captured the journey across Canada and will produce a documentary over the coming months outlining key financial empowerment, sustainable livelihoods and collective impact program learnings. The documentary will apply the learnings to an Australian context and inform the development of our Yarnin’ Jobs/Business program and our collective impact community.