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Established in 2016, Financial Toolbox is a registered not-for-profit organisation that aims to build financial knowledge and skills of Western Australian women to give them independence and freedom of choice throughout their lives. Financial Toolbox is run entirely by a team of passionate and dedicated volunteers, and partners with key leaders in this area to develop its programs.
Financial Toolbox focuses on the economic empowerment of women through a range of initiatives:
Workshops: providing subsidised financial education for women
Your Toolkit: Supporting women facing domestic violence and financial abuse on their journey to an independent, confident and safe life
Youth Programs: delivering online financial education material for high school students in partnership with Student Edge
These initiatives support women to:
Get ahead of their finances, take control of spending and saving and avoid common pitfalls so they can be financially independent and in control
Protect themselves from unexpected surprises in life which can have a big impact on personal finances
Learn skills to minimise personal risk and maximise options, should something untoward occur
In addition to the partnerships listed above, Financial Toolbox works closely with a large number of organisations including Women’s Council for Domestic and Family Violence, ASIC, Legal Aid, Lifeline, WA Police, Department of Communities, Financial Counsellors Network and Headspace.
Financial Toolbox is also a member of the Economic Empowerment Project, which has Lotterywest funding of $604,000, and delivered its first train-the-trainer style financial education in February, aimed at supporting women in refuges.
In 2020, Financial Toolbox is focusing on embedding Your Toolkit as a referral source in key organisations and developing community workshops.
The Curtin University Tax Clinic’s published book, Henry’s Taxing Day, is now available.
This is the first book in a series targeted towards pre-primary students, and provides a soft introduction to the broad concepts of taxation. The book was created to address several gaps in the delivery of tax and more broadly, financial literacy education.
Given that tax plays a crucial role in transactions, and that the revenue generated from the collection of taxes enables the majority of public services we enjoy, it is essential that future participants of the tax system are informed of their obligations and understand broadly how the taxes we pay are used. Early education and intervention is therefore essential to developing a society conscious of compliance obligations and willing to participate in the tax system authentically and transparently.
It is the hope of Curtin Tax Clinic that the compliance and public services message will resonate with parents and children. This is the first step in developing a culture in future taxpayers that centres on compliance.
In August 2019, the Curtin Tax Clinic, an initiative co-founded by Curtin Law School academics, Annette Morgan and Donovan Castelyn, ventured to the remote, regional community of Broome, Western Australia, with the intent to provide tax related assistance to those most in need.
With the support of the Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry – who facilitated initial promotion, and provided the workspace for the visit – the regional clinic team were well placed to deliver their services to the community.
Over the course of one week, the clinic successfully assisted numerous members of the Broome community with matters ranging from simple lodgements to complex FBT, GST and indigenous corporations advice.
Curtin donations help Indigenous households hit by pandemic
Staff at Curtin University have dug deep to help Indigenous community members in WA hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A donation drive attracted hundreds of essentials items such as towels, pillows, blankets, toiletries and cleaning products, which are being distributed by the Wirrpanda Foundation, through its Deadly Sista Girlz program, to young women and other community members who have lost their livelihoods, or even access to essential items due to the pandemic.
Curtin Cuts the Cups (C3) is a cross disciplinary collaborative project, focusing on phasing out single use coffee cups at Curtin University. This project is led by PhD student Etienne Rastion, who has connected with and engaged a number of Curtin teams, staff and students in this initiative.
Bridget Tombleson, from the School of Marketing, is on the advisory panel from a communication perspective. Bridget engaged her Transmedia Storytelling unit students in the project by inviting them to create social media stories for C3. Dr Luke Butcher, also from the School of Marketing, worked with C3 in his User Experience Design unit.
Dr Louis Geneste from the School of Management used C3 as the focal case for a Strategy, Change and Innovation unit. Students used design thinking to look at C3’s stakeholders and to analyse the challenges the initiative faced more deeply. Students completed an innovation report detailing actions C3 could put into place to deliver its value proposition, as well as developed business models to help investigate how C3 could be commercialised. The student work and respective assessments on C3 accounted for 70% of the grades for the unit.
To date, 166 students have been involved in the C3 project from across the university.
Learn more about the C3 project
