This report highlights the critical role played by all Geelong Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) members, over the past 18 months, in addressing the issues of financial stress and hardship affecting the local communities.

In 2018, the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust extended an opportunity for Good Shepherd to leverage the learnings of the national FIAP Program and test it in a specific place in regional Victoria. Geelong was selected as the first location to pilot the concept of a Place-Based FIAP.

The project explored the impact of key risks and triggers of financial stress and hardship in Geelong such as low income, unemployment, specific life events, lack of access to safe and affordable products and services, limited knowledge and capability to undertake effective financial decisions and identified practical actions to address these challenges.