The Moonee Valley City Council Women, Careers & Leadership Project: an emerging model for replication

This paper reports on research conducted by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), Swinburne University of Technology, into the Moonee Valley City Council (MVCC) ‘Women, Careers and Leadership’ (WCL) project which sought to create and deliver a culturally appropriate career guidance program with women of migrant and refugee backgrounds living in Flemington and Ascot Vale Housing Estates. The evaluation had two core components: 1. an understanding of what participants view as outcomes for them, their families and community, arising from participation; and 2. identification of the key elements of the program design and the key enablers and barriers to outcomes. The WCL project offers a model that has achieved substantial outcomes for the migrant, refugee and asylum seeker women involved. Participants and stakeholders strongly supported the model, and also identified areas for enhancement in future iterations.