*This project finished in July 2021.
Ecstra Foundation granted AMCS with funding for the Money Talks for Better Ageing project, which aims to strengthen the financial wellbeing of seniors from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD). The program provides fair access to information and resources about financial abuse for seniors to make informed financial decisions, either by themselves or with family or carers.
In a survey, one participant said, “Financial counselling for seniors is vital and I believe this initiative covered the importance of financial counsellors when seeking financial advice.”
In partnership with Seniors Rights Victoria, Financial Counselling Victoria and local financial counsellors, the project successfully completed two co-design online workshops with over 100 CALD seniors from metropolitan Melbourne. The first co-design workshop, Money Talking Day, provided a platform to:
The second co-design workshop, Your Money-Your Safety, empowered individuals to co-create actionable solutions with financial experts.
Another participant said, “It was an interesting session. I can now educate myself on various forms of elder financial abuse.”
Through both workshops, we discovered the many challenges CALD seniors face:
Currently, we are developing media resources like YouTube videos and factsheets in 10 different languages, and organising information sharing workshops for community groups.
To express your interest in our upcoming workshops, please contact, Isurika Wijewardhena, Project Coordinator, on isurika.wijewardhena@amcservices.org.au or 0432 099 369.
I lived most of my life in India and came to Australia a few years back. This project helped me learn about financial counsellors and support services available for seniors who are financially vulnerable. Thank you for providing information.
I had the opportunity to participate in the two workshops and they were very informative. The sessions helped me to improve my knowledge on financial abuse/mistreatment and, more importantly, informed us about our rights.
The talks are informative and I always enjoy them. I learnt the different types of financial problems in our daily life and the right departments to ask for help.
AMCS has built remarkable relationships with its communities — a mutual trust. Just as AMCS’ community groups trusted AMCS to be bringing them a discussion of benefit, AMCS in turn recognises and trusts in the community groups’ capacity to take these difficult topics on and develop a thoughtful and supportive response.
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