My mother might smile and say that I am the last person in the world who should be facilitating our Money Minded and Rent It Keep It workshops!  But here I am, side by side with the women we work with every day, exploring ways to better our financial circumstances.

Personal finance is a confronting subject of conversation and can cause a level of intimidation for any of us. For a lot of the women we work with, it can be even more confronting because having control of their finances is often a new experience. The lack of income, sole responsibility for everyday emergencies and little financial education does not make their circumstances any easier.

At Bonnie’s, we try our best to tailor our support to every individual. We know every woman is different and the kind of support and assistance she needs is different too. Our 8 week course of Money Minded and Rent It Keep It workshops are designed that way. We run them here at Bonnies to help build skills, knowledge and confidence. The workshops also cover what is important to remember in order to sustain a tenancy with our support and in the future, without it.

We ran our first workshop in collaboration with ANZ in 2016 to create a space where women could learn money-savvy tools together, especially from each other.

In a recent workshop, my co-worker Bianca and I were privileged to see this in action when a client shared her own saving strategies. Her method was to create several mini accounts through her internet banking which she personalised with names such as car registration, Christmas presents, hairdresser, electricity bill etc.

It was very powerful to see the teaching change hands!  As workers, we can try our best to explore and teach new tools but hearing from someone like this woman, with similar experiences to the women in the group, resonated so strongly for them. I felt they were able to could take on the ideas and move forward without that daunting feeling of hopelessness.

It’s important that all women, regardless of our background, have the information and knowledge to feel in control and better prepared for the future. Women are the experts of their own lives and we are only here to stand beside them when needed.

At Bonnie’s we’re making 2017 a bigger and better year for learning adventures! We welcome all women to join us.

Contact us to find out more about Money Minded and Rent it Keep It

Written by Carolina