Breaking Ground Video Launch

MajellandAnneAs student participants from across the country get ready to graduate with their Diploma of Community Services (Financial Counselling), a new video by ICAN Media – “Breaking Ground” – has been developed to capture their journey through the “Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program” (IFCMP).

The video documents the personal and professional impacts of the program, on Indigenous participants, and is told from the perspectives of two remote students, Ann Lynch from Lutheran Community Care in Alice Springs and Nioka Brown from Muru Mittigar in Penrith.

Over the past months Aaron Davis, ICAN CEO, and Majella Anderson, Training Coordinator traveled to Alice Springs and Penrith to film the students and to engage with their community organisations, to capture how the skills learned in the Mentorship Program are having a wider effect, both in the financial counselling work of the students and their clients, and how their participation in the program assists the organisations’ in their service delivery.

The Mentorship Program provides essential support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders working in the fields of financial counselling and money management, to undertake the accredited Diploma program. With a dedicated training coordinator, the program includes personal and academic mentorship in a supported learning environment, connecting students through virtual and face-to-face classroom oriented training.

Aaron Davis, ICAN CEO said the program develops the skill set of Indigenous people working in their local communities and continues to lift the number of accredited Indigenous financial counsellors in Australia.” ICAN and community organisations from Derby to Port Augusta will celebrate the achievements of participants from the second round of the Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program in June 2014.

During the April block training week, student participants from across the country gathered in Cairns. Aaron Davis, ICAN CEO, put on his video producer hat, using the time to film the final shots for the short documentary.

“Breaking Ground” is being launched this week – May 19-21, 2014 – at the Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) conference by Majella Anderson, to promote applications for ICAN’s 3rd “Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program” in 2015. The Mentorship Program is proudly sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Short documentary on the first national Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program and the graduates that are making a difference in their own communities. Find out more at http://ican.org.au/programs .