On Wednesday 21 June, the FCVic Special Projects team held our much-anticipated Festival of Ideas – Priceless, the unpaid contribution. The event was hosted by the Treacy Centre in Parkville, and focused on the intersections between the financial counselling, carer support, mental health and wellbeing, and public library sectors. The 110 professionals who attended were provided with an opportunity to network, learn about other sectors, and share their own work.
The event began with a jam-packed plenary, starting with a welcome from Michael Brown, FCVic’s interim Executive Officer. Next, Judith Abbott, CEO of Carers Victoria, spoke about the relationship between unpaid caring and financial precarity, and the particular money stresses experienced by carers. Her message was emphasised by the next speaker, Sue McBride, senior financial counsellor at Consumer Action Law Centre, who provided an overview of the National Debt Helpline, before zeroing in on what CALC has discovered while participating in the pilot of the Carer Pathway for Financial Counselling.
Next, Phil Watson, Principal Program Advisor, Mental Health and Wellbeing Division in the Department of Health, gave an update on the Victorian Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, including their most recent mental health initiatives. This included an introduction to the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals, which will be opening across the state over the next few years.
Following Phil, Agatina Russo, Manager of the Specialist Residential Rehabilitation Program (SRRP) & Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC) (Murray Region) at Wellways Australia, spoke about a pilot program led by FCVic and delivered by Wellways in partnership with Shepparton Family and Financial Services. This program, known as On Track with my Money, connected participants receiving mental health supports with the option to connect with financial counselling. A particular highlight was the video that Agatina showed during her presentation, in which participants shared the positive experiences they’d had when seeing a financial counsellor. These powerful first-person accounts spoke volumes about the impact of the program. A discussion with Agatina and Lauren Shadbolt from Wellways, and Jenny Elvey and Tracie Driscoll, from Shepparton Family and Financial Services, followed.
A short break for morning tea came next, and attendees were encouraged to view the Julie and the Debt Monster installation of ten posters over coffee and scones. The room immediately came alive as attendees met one another and discussed what had been shared so far. In fact, such was the buzz in the room, it was a challenge to get attendees back to their seats for the next half of the plenary!
When attendees were finally re-seated, Kyle Hayes from Little Dreamers gave an exuberant presentation in which he introduced the audience to the experience of young carers, and the fabulous work Little Dreamers is doing in supporting them. His firsthand account of learning that the ‘medication drawer’ in his fridge was, in other homes, a ‘vegetable crisper’ was particularly memorable! Jane Rossiter, Team Leader, Carer Engagement Team at Alfred Health Carer Services (AHCS), kindly stepped up at short notice to continue the theme of unpaid carers, explaining to those attended the sort of support that is provided by AHCS.
Next, Dr Becky Nevin Berger introduced attendees to her Warm Safe Home project, which uses craft as a way of gently introducing concepts of elder abuse. Finally, Angela Savage, CEO of Public Libraries Victoria, spoke passionately about the role of the library in contemporary society, the increased necessity for these sorts of safe spaces in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, and the value of embedding financial counselling and capability resources in the public library sector.
Following the plenary, lunch was served – and with it, ample time for networking. Attendees were encouraged to visit the 25 tables, spread across the ground floor of the Treacy Centre, and staffed by organisations as diverse as Public Libraries Victoria, Polaron Language Services, Women’s Health in the North, Australian Multicultural Community Services and Little Dreamers. Many were keen to learn more about the programs that had been introduced during the plenary, and to make connections with the speakers and organizations that had featured.
For FCVic, it was an opportunity to showcase many of the resources we have been developing over the past few years, and to share these with attendees. We distributed flyers with a QR code, providing access to these resources, and encouraged everyone to explore, use these tools in their own work, and share them amongst their peers. The festival was also an opportunity to launch a number of our more recent resources and outreach initiatives, including FCVic’s new Prospectus, ‘How to host a financial counselling clinic’; our Quick Guides factsheets and videos, developed in partnership with Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre and Alfred Health Carer Services; Money Explorer, developed in partnership with Little Dreamers; and our Libraries Outreach program, developed in partnership with Kathleen Syme Library, City of Melbourne. Click here to see just one of our launches – complete with countdown!
Attendees have been hugely enthusiastic about both the plenary and networking parts of the day, expressing that the presentations were ‘sharp’, ‘engaging’ and ‘inspiring’. They praised the variety of the speakers, and the ‘out of the box’ programs they described. Many working outside the financial counselling sector noted that they came away with a greater appreciation of the assistance that financial counselling can provide the broader community. Many attendees hoped that a similar event – or follow-up – might happen next year.
If you were unable to attend the Festival of Ideas, you can still access the resources FCVic shared! We welcome you to explore and use all that has been produced, which can be found here. For a visual overview of everything that we have developed, please view this video.
A huge thank you to all those who attended and made the event such a success! We hope you found the day energising and informative, and welcome you to use these resources and outreach programs, where relevant, in your own practice.