CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

The Financial Counsellors Association of WA is excited to be organising its annual conference with the theme, ‘Waves of Change, Oceans of Opportunities’ and is keen to receive abstracts from groups, organisations or individuals who would like to present to the conference.

The Financial Counsellors’ Association of WA (FCAWA) provides membership to over 130 financial counsellors based in WA and through National Standards and Guidelines, offers financial counsellors access to continuing professional development, supervision, and support.

FCAWA also provides an advocacy and policy development role on the issues that people in financial hardship experience and raises the profile of financial counselling in the Western Australian community offering a free, independent and confidential service.

FCAWA is calling for potential papers and presentations for inclusion in its 2017 Annual Conference, ‘Waves of Change – Oceans of Opportunities’.

Themes

Conference themes will include:

Skills for Financial Counsellors;

Economic abuse Gambling in WA Mental health and economic independence Homelessness and financial hardship Cultural considerations in offering financial support Elder economic abuse

Ethics

Ethical practice for financial counsellors Counselling relationships Boundaries Conflicts of interest

Technical

Superannuation changes Changes to the banking code Utility and mortgage stress Debt and Bankruptcy Pay day lending and the credit code Impact of the WA financial downturn on vulnerable clients Issues impacting on financial stress

What we are looking for

Keynote speakers - 45-minute presentation with 15 min Q & A, suitable for research and academic papers

Plenary sessions – 20-minute presentation suitable for best practice guidelines and to show case programs and models

Workshop Presentations – 1 hour facilitated workshop of an identified theme Attendance at our industry marketplace – on Tuesday 24 October from 12.30pm to

2.00pm – the opportunity to promote your services to the financial counselling sector.

Submission Procedure

1 Prepare your abstract on the template provided on the website 2 Enter your contact details3 Enter your abstract details for each abstract you submit

Abstracts of no more than 250 words to be provided by close of business Friday July 7th, 2017. All abstracts will be considered by the Conference Advisory Group and successful presentations will be advised by early August 2017.

Please use the Abstract Template, in Word format for your submission

Abstracts to be submitted electronically to the Executive Officer Bev Jowle: eo@financialcounsellors.org