Since 2002, Juno (formerly known as WISHIN) has been working with women and non-binary people in Melbourne’s north who are experiencing homelessness or familyviolence to provide support and design solutions. Alongside our usual case management, our focus at Juno has also been on introducing programs that tackle the structural issues of homelessness, gendered poverty and family violence, to create sustainable change in the lives of the women and non-binary people we work with.
EMPower (Economic Mobility Power) is a program developed by Juno (the first of its kind in Australia), based closely on a highly successful model from Boston-based organisation, EMPath. EMPower utilises a coaching approach focusing on long terms goals and a breakthrough economic mobility model to support women and non-binary people to recover from the impacts of trauma and build a strong, economically secure and thriving future for themselves and their families.
What is unique about this coaching method is that it brings together a strong neuroscience and trauma-informed evidence base alongside a deep belief in people’s capacity to grow and heal and specific tools and ways of working with people that support this transformation.
Coaching is future-focused in that it builds capacity and strengthens people’s belief in themselves whilst connecting them to networks that create greater social support as they make plans to reach their goals. Juno developed this unique coaching model in response to what we were hearing from the women and non-binary we work with about the support they needed, along with what the evidence base tells us is required to enable people to achieve stability and economic mobility after the experience of homelessness.
Within our two-and-a-half-year pilot of this unique economic mobility coaching model, EMPower, we have worked with 38 women to build strong, economically secure and thriving futures for themselves and their families. In our midline evaluation delivered in January 2023, there was an average income increase amongst participants of $375 per fortnight from $986 to $1361. Of the women who are able to work, 78% are currently employed in part-time or full-time work, or regular casual employment or training, compared to 27% at intake. In addition to building personal economic security, participants also report an improved sense of agency, self-determination, and confidence in themselves. They are safe, well-resourced and achieving meaningful goals for their life.
If we are to respond effectively to women and non-binary people’s experiences of homelessness, what the evidence base and lived experience tells us is, new approaches are needed. Approaches that are trauma-informed, focused on what each unique individual needs to recover and with the capacity to address and overcome the structural barriers too often holding women and non-binary people back. Investment in recovery programs that work with women and non-binary people after homelessness and/or family violence in these ways is urgently needed.