WomenCAN Australia is dedicated to assisting women and girls to attain financial independence and autonomy through education, employment and the encouragement that comes from a shared lived experience.We do this with our social enterprise – WomenCAN Australia and our charity, The Placement Circle.There has been a rapidly emerging prevalence of older, poor, single females who find themselves without a permanent safe place to live and with limited or unreliable income. Our program supports a transition through education and employment for all women and girls so that they can achieve the financial and emotional strength to carry them through to a dignified old age.One well-documented circuit-breaker of poverty and attendant homelessness is reliable employment. To be employed requires a skill set. We know that by building a business or being employed by another, the following benefits are realised:Generation of a reliable income stream;Restoration of confidence and self-esteem;Creation of and access to a supportive network of women with a shared lived experience.Through our membership model, we foster peer support from the lived experience of each other. When women feel that they belong and are valued, they can achieve anything. The encouragement and enthusiasm that comes from the story of others who have triumphed over adversity is contagious. We are about women supporting other women to improve their lives so they can make choices that empower them and determine their own destiny.Through our membership model, we foster peer support from the lived experience of each other. When women feel that they belong and are valued, they can achieve anything. The encouragement and enthusiasm that comes from the story of others who have triumphed over adversity is contagious. We are about women supporting other women to improve their lives so they can make choices that empower them and determine their own destiny.