Stepping up women’s financial wellbeing: Stepping Stones program 2021–23 service impact report

Drawing on project documents, deidentified monitoring data and case studies, this report summarises the model, activities, outcomes and learnings from the 2021–23 cohort of women who participated in Stepping Stones.

Since its inception in 2011, Stepping Stones has worked with women from over 30 local council areas and supported nearly 2000 women to improve, or take steps towards improving, their financial circumstances.

In 2021, Stepping Stones collaborated with Hume, Wyndham, Melton and Ballarat councils to deliver the program in those and surrounding areas with funding from the Office for Women. The program was also delivered online to interested women across Victoria.

This report also offers some recommendations for scaling and future implementation of the model to support women with multiple and intersecting barriers to achieving economic security.