Lunch & Learn: Safe and Smart - standing up to scams and financial abuse

This presentation from Dr Medha Gunawardana, Manager Community Strengthening, Australian Multicultural Community Services (AMC Services) and Dr Suzy Goldsmith took place on Thursday 14 August at 12.30pm.

Our speakers explored AMC Services' design and delivery of 'Money Smart for Seniors' - a project co-created with culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities to tackle the 'silent crimes' of elder financial abuse, scams, and fraud.

This session highlighted the impact of communities leading the way in designing culturally appropriate education.

Discussion focussed on:

• The unique challenges older people from multicultural backgrounds face when identifying scams and financial abuse
• How cultural perceptions and stigma affect reporting and help-seeking
• The barriers older people face in accessing support and protect
• Why involving older people with lived and living experience is crucial to effective co-design
• Lessons learned from creating accessible, culturally relevant education tools +How community-led approaches can build confidence, capability and resilience
• The value of a strengths-based approach to empower multicultural communities in taking action against financial fraud and protecting financial wellbeing.

This is an essential session for anyone working with older people from multicultural backgrounds including professionals in elder abuse prevention, financial safety education and community engagement. Community leaders and service providers seeking practical, culturally responsive strategies will also find this very valuable.

Watch this session on our YouTube channel:

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A little bit about our presenters

Dr Medha Gunawardana (PhD)
Manager Community Strengthening
Australian Multicultural Community Services

Dr Medha Gunawardana (PhD) has worked extensively in the multicultural sector in Victoria for over seven years. She currently serves as the Manager of Community Strengthening at Australian Multicultural Community Services (AMCS).

Medha is a Board Member of both the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV) and Elder Abuse Action Australia. She also chairs ECCV’s Positive Ageing and Aged Care Policy Advisory Committee. A dedicated leader in multiculturalism,

Medha is actively involved in cultural and community development. She is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities, with a particular focus on seniors and newly emerging communities. Her passion lies in supporting older people facing challenges, empowering them to age meaningfully and live independently with dignity and hope.

Dr Suzy Goldsmith

For the past ten years, Dr Suzy Goldsmith’s consulting work has focused on strategy, risk and innovation challenges within the non-profit sector; working collaboratively with organisations, staff, consumers and community on strategic research and reviews, submissions and service models.

A strong theme of her work considers community members, especially those with vulnerability, and how they access, navigate and experience the systems that are supposed to support them. It is this lens that she brings to her work on older people’s challenges, rights and strengths to maximise their quality of life.

Over five years, Suzy has worked with AMCS staff and community members on capacity-building projects. Together, we re-look at the problems and imagine, then co-create interventions that increase individual and collective resilience.