P164 Financial Wellbeing Program - Capacity Building Partners

The Department of Human Services (DHS) is undertaking an Invitation to Supply (ITS) process to fund suitably experienced and qualified organisations to provide the Financial Wellbeing Program (FWP).

The FWP funds non-government organisations to deliver programs and services that promote the financial wellbeing of individuals, families, children, young people and vulnerable communities in each SA Government Region in South Australia.

DHS is seeking to engage two Capacity Building Partners for the FWP through this ITS:

• Aboriginal Capacity Building Partner (ACBP), from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) Sector
• Multicultural Capacity Building Partner (MCBP), from the Culturally and Linguistically diverse (CALD) and/or the New and Emerging Communities’ (NEC) Sectors.

The Capacity Building Partners will work with service providers to deliver training and support and build the capacity of the sector to better support financially vulnerable people to move from crisis to financial wellbeing.

The program seeks to alleviate the immediate impact of financial crisis or emergency as well as to build individual and community resilience to better handle the impact of adverse financial matters over the longer term.

It aims to improve financial capability, broadly understood as a combination of financial knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions, based on personal circumstances.

It also aims to enhance financial resilience, broadly understood as the ability to access and draw on capabilities with external resources and supports in times of financial adversity.

The FWP supports individuals, families, and communities by providing five key elements:

1. Financial counselling to address financial hardship and build capacity
2. Emergency assistance via goods and services, financial assistance or help with bills
3. Prevention via community and workforce education and potentially other innovative practices
4. Connections through warm referrals to other services, programs and community assets
5. Timely triage of client needs.

Successful Capacity Building Partners will be engaged for an initial period of three years from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2026. Due to the Capacity building Partners being new program elements, this is considered to be a developmental phase and no extension options will be available. Services will be required to be in place from 1 July 2023.