Pama Platform
OVERVIEW Pama Platform (or ‘Pama’) is a Try, Test and Learn (TTL) initiative, co-designed with Cape York people and funded by the Department of Social Services (DSS). It uses agile delivery techniques to innovate the linking of Indigenous individuals and families in Cape York to opportunities. It does this in a way that can provide strong scaffolding to help people to move from the passive welfare system to a virtuous circle of change, where success breeds greater success. Focusing on five key domains—money management, education, health, home ownership and employment—the Platform, once fully developed, will amalgamate and enhance existing Opportunity Products and services delivered by the O-Hubs. Pama will streamline these into a single, userfacing, secure, mobile-friendly, responsive web-based application. Pama’s first release (launched in February 2021) provides users with access to key features that support employment and money management such as uploading a job profile and completing a budget online. The Platform also offers a community calendar and noticeboard, which enables users to keep up to date with local events and activities in their community. In the second half of 2021, users will be able to open Opportunity Accounts—a key pillar of the Pama innovation. It will enable them to allocate a portion of their income towards certain goals according to their life stages such as child-rearing expenses, education, personal development and home ownership. These funds will be ‘locked’ to prevent access except for the dedicated purpose, which will aid in building personal wealth as well as protecting individuals from exploitation and negative behaviours. These features of Pama build financial capability and a sense of achievement by providing visibility of account balances and leveraging lessons from behavioural economics to reward positive actions and nudge individuals towards their targets through a credit points system. Incentives, funded by the National Indigenous Australians Agency and co-designed with Cape York people, are tailored to encourage ongoing engagement with the Platform and incentivise consistent contributions to Opportunity Accounts. The Platform can be accessed at mypama.com.au.
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Family Empowerment Report // January–June 2021