Yarrabah Graduate Embarks on New Adventure

Shang-Ri LaMelanie Noble, a graduate of ICAN’s Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship Program, recently embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. Putting her qualification to good use, Ms Noble landed a financial counselling position in the small Western Australian desert community of Warakurna, 300 Kilometers west of Uluru.  When asked about moving her young family from Far North Queensland, Ms Noble said, “The move was tough at first, but we’ve settled in now and have started meeting the locals.”

Ms. Noble works for Ngaanyatjarra, a large Indigenous Council based in Alice Springs that services 12 Aboriginal communities in remote Western Australia. Ms Noble said that, “This is the very first time the council has undertaken a Financial Wellbeing Program out here in the communities so we’ve literally had to start everything from scratch, including sourcing/creating appropriate client forms, linking with relevant service providers and applying for membership to relevant Financial Counsellors’ Associations.”

ICAN is proud of Melanie’s achievement and will continue to provide support in her financial counselling journey wherever possible. “Having the ICAN family back in Cairns as a support is a great help in my work, as they’ve provided me with the tools I need to do my job and contacts of people that can help me get connected in the financial counselling sector,” said Ms Noble.

Commenting on her chosen career path, Melanie said, “Please tell Peter Harm (CBA Indigenous Community Team) all about my journey and how I couldn’t have done it without the Commonwealth Bank sponsored Indigenous Financial Mentorship Program.”

ICAN is seeking interest from community organisations across Australia for its nationally recognised Indigenous Financial Counselling Mentorship 2014 Program and is now accepting enrollments for the Diploma of Community Services (Financial Counselling). There are limited placements available, with course work anticipated to commence in July 2014.  Go to http://ican.org.au/programs/ for more information.

(Pictured Above: 2012 Graduation, ICAN Mentorship Program. L-R: Tristan Landers, Melanie Noble & Peter Harm)