Education & industry team up to improve financial literacy for community housing tenants

The future of learning and work is rooted in creative collaborations that make meaningful impacts on the world around us. This is particularly true when two organisations, who are pushing the boundaries of innovation in their respective fields, come together in a collaboration to improve the lives of people in need. 

Head Start Homes is excited to partner with Harness Projects - who offer an online, project based learning experience that unites eager learners, inspirational mentors and progressive companies.  Our project with Harness provided the opportunity for 12 upskilling professionals to learn UX design, while creating a digital solution for Head Start Homes to empower families living in community housing with improved financial literacy.

Founder and Managing Director of Head Start Homes, Stephen Woodlands, believes much of our future reach relies on scaling our financial literacy program through digital experiences that empower customers with the confidence and knowledge to access home ownership.

“Financial capacity is a big focus of our work. Increasing financial literacy and knowledge around the process of obtaining a mortgage is really important for our applicants. We want to have a tool available to community housing tenants that is scalable, and easily accessible and remains effective at equipping and upskilling people; a gamified tool that is engaging and builds confidence. This is where Harness Projects is providing incredible value here at Head Start Homes.” 

After providing a project brief to Harness, a student group of 12 was mentored by a Senior / Head of UX from industry who guided them along the journey and ensured that Head Start Homes received creative solutions for consideration and implementation on our business road map.

“Our partnership with Harness Projects has been so exciting. The students were very passionate about making meaningful change and some incredibly creative thinking went into their work. The solutions proposed could be a real game changer to the way we view financial learning and access to finance”

Harness Projects co-founders Chris Ventura and Mike O’Brien are focused on ensuring that both the students and companies get great outcomes from the project experience. 

“Harness Projects was born with the aim of bridging the gap between education and employment. By delivering real world project experiences to our students, we can leverage the power of the learning market to solve some of society’s most important challenges. Our company partners have provided some incredible design challenges for our students to tackle. And the students have come away with rewarding learning experiences that have helped them to land jobs in the industry.”

To discover more about Harness Projects - a unique and rapidly expanding education company - please visit: https://www.harnessprojects.com.au

Above: project work to support Head Start Homes’ financial literacy support for community housing tenants.