ECLC’s Matter of Trust program has been delivering financial elder abuse prevention workshops in collaboration with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in the east for a number of years.

Every step of the process – from workshop design to delivery – is approached collaboratively with critical input from a group of community advisors from the Indian, Chinese and Greek communities.

At the 2017 National CLCs Conference in Canberra, Matter of Trust community advisor Anand Shome (also Vice President, IndianCare) and ECLC’s Anita Koochew presented tips for replicating the project model in other communities where financial elder abuse is occurring:

Find the right people – ECLC works with community ‘advisors’ who have strong grassroots connections to local CALD communities and limited access to the resources of a mainstream agency

Take time to build positive and respectful relationships with your new collaborators, before leaping into the planning stages of a workshop

Trust in each other’s knowledge and experience – and share it! ECLC provides community advisors with training on elder abuse and shares engagement techniques for co-facilitating workshops. Similarly, community advisors share stories of elder abuse with ECLC and other services, which offer insight into broader matters that may affect their community, such as immigration, cultural practices, spiritual beliefs and family expectations.

Adapt the content to best meet the needs of each community, as directed by the community advisors. No two communities are the same, so it’s important to make changes, where necessary, to the workshop format, language and presenters.

Mr Shome said the project had been a ‘matter of trust’ in many ways, founded on positive relationships and a commitment to achieving a common goal.

Matter of Trust is a project led by ECLC in collaboration with EMR Communities’ Council on Ethnic Issues, the Sheriff’s Office, Centrelink, EACH, Victoria Police and local community organisations, funded by the Victoria Law Foundation and the Victorian Multicultural Commission.