Prosper Canada Conferences – Prosper Canada Learning Hub

ABLE 2021: Virtual Fall Series

Recover and Rebuild: Helping Canadians build financial security during the pandemic and beyond

The 2021 ABLE Financial Empowerment (FE) virtual series is a collection of online financial empowerment events designed to provide frontline FE practitioners, FE stakeholders, government, policy-makers and academics with knowledge, tools, resources and insights on financial topics to help struggling Canadians build financial resilience through the pandemic and recovery.

The spring virtual series features presentations and interactive discussions for frontline practitioners. The fall virtual series showcases relevant topics for post-pandemic financial empowerment and is geared for people from all sectors working to mobilize financial empowerment solutions to tackle poverty in Canada.

Opening and Welcome

ABLE 2021: Opening and Welcome Helen Bobiwash, FCPA, FCMA, CAFM – YouTube

Session: Tackling pandemic hardship: The financial impact of COVID-19 on low-income households

Tackling pandemic hardship: The financial impact of COVID-19 on low-income households – YouTube

Download summary and detailed reports: The financial resilience and financial well-being of Canadians with low incomes: insights and analysis to support the financial empowerment sector

Download slide deck: The differential impact of the pandemic on low income families

Booth Chats: Big ideas for a more equitable recovery

Resolve Financial and Credit Counselling

Video Pitch: Booth chat: Jeri Bittorf, Resolve Financial and Credit Counselling Services Coordinator – YouTube

Slide Deck: K3C Credit Counselling (ablefinancialempowerment.org)

Seniors Financial Empowerment Network

Video Pitch: Booth Chat: Sarah Ramsey, City of Edmonton, Community Development Social Worker – YouTube

Seneca College

Video Pitch: Booth Chat: Varinder Gill, Seneca College, Professor & Program Co-ordinator – YouTube

Slide Deck: Innovations in Tax Filing: Study of Barriers Faced by Low Income People and Finding Potential Solutions (ablefinancialempowerment.org)

Prosper Canada: Integrating Financial Empowerment into Ontario Works

Video Pitch: Booth Chat: Ana Fremont, Prosper Canada Manager, Program Delivery and Integration – YouTube

Slide Deck: Thunder Bay Financial Empowerment Integration (ablefinancialempowerment.org)

Prosper Canada: Prosperity Gateways – Cities for Financial Empowerment, Toronto Public Library

Video Pitch: Booth Chat: John Stephenson, Manager, Program Delivery and Integration – YouTube

Slide Deck: PowerPoint Presentation (ablefinancialempowerment.org)

Session: Measuring the divide: Has COVID-19 widened economic disparities for Canada’s BIPOC communities

View session recording

Download slide deck: Income Support During COVID-19and ongoing challenges

Download slide deck: Re thinking income adequacy in the COVID-19 recovery

Session: Financial wellness and healing: Can building financial wellness help Indigenous communities?

Session recording: Financial wellness and healing: Can building financial wellness help Indigenous communities? – YouTube

Download slide deck: Indigenous Financial Literacy: Behaviour Insights from an Indigenous Perspective

Download slide deck: Financial wellness and Indigenous Healing

Session: When money meets race: Addressing systemic racism through financial empowerment

Session Recording: Financial wellness and healing: Can building financial wellness help Indigenous communities? – YouTube

Download slide deck: When Money Meets Race: Addressing Systematic Racism Through Financial Empowerment

Session: Tous ensemble maintenant : Rétablissement de la santé financière de la population canadienne : l’affaire de tous les secteurs/ All together now: How all sectors have a role to play in rebuilding Canadians’ financial health

Session: All together now: How all sectors have a role to play in rebuilding Canadians’ financial health – YouTube

Session: When opportunity knocks: Poverty, disability, and Canada’s proposed new disability benefit

Session recording unavailable

Download slide deck: When Opportunity Knocks: Disability without Poverty

Session: The good, the bad and the innovation: The pandemic redesign of tax filing and benefit assistance

View the session recording

Closing remarks from Adam Fair, Vice President, Strategy and Impact, Prosper Canada; Helen Bobiwash

View Recording

ABLE 2021: Virtual Series

Recover and Rebuild: Helping Canadians build financial security during the pandemic and beyond

Webinar (May 19th): Self-care for practitioners - strategies and challenges

Read the presentation slides for ‘Self care for frontline practitioners’.
Watch the video recording for ‘Self care for frontline practitioners’
Handout: Implementing a practice of self-care

Connect and Share (May 27th): Self-care strategies

Read the slides for this meetup event.
Download the self-care action plan worksheet.

Webinar (June 9, 2021): Virtual one-on-one client support

Read the slides for the ‘Virtual one-on-one client support’ webinar.
Watch the video recording for ‘Virtual one-on-one client support’

Download the handouts:
Client tool: Information to remember
Tip sheet: Supporting client intake, triage, and referral in virtual financial help services
Financial coaching at a distance: Tips for practitioners

Connect and Share (June 17, 2021): Tax-time debrief

Read the slides for ‘Connect and Share: Tax time debrief’.
View additional resources in Prosper Canada’s Tax filing toolkit.

Workshop (June 21, 2001): Beyond bubble baths - self-care during a pandemic

Workshop slides: Beyond bubble baths – self-care during a pandemic
Handout: Beyond bubble baths – Self-care during a pandemic

Resources shared during session:
Native-land.ca
Indigenous languages list in British Columbia
Self-compassion.org
Tara Brach mindfulness resources
Headspace
Boho beautiful guided meditations

Webinar (June 23, 2021): Diversity and inclusion - A conversation with SEED Winnipeg

Watch the video recording for ‘Steps to more equitable and inclusive programming’
Read the slides for ‘Steps to more equitable and inclusive programming’
Handout: Indigenous Inclusion resources

Workshop (June 24, 2021): Visualizing client experiences - Using journey maps

Workshop slides: Visualizing client experiences
Handout: More resources for using journey maps

Policy and research symposium: Income volatility

The research and policy symposium on income volatility was held on March 9, 2018, in Toronto, Ontario. Speakers from Canada and the United States present on key research findings on the nature of income and expense volatility in the early 21st Century. Speakers also suggest policy solutions to address the challenges of increasingly volatile household income.

Talking to our neighbours: America’s household balance sheets

Household Financial Stability and Income Volatility, Ray Boshara, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Income volatility: What banking data can tell us, if we ask, Fiona Greig, JP Morgan Chase Institute
Up Close and Personal: Findings from the U.S. Financial Diaries, Rob Levy, CFSI

The good, the bad, and the ugly: Canada’s household balance sheets

Canada’s household balance sheets, Andrew Heisz, Statistics Canada

Income volatility and its effects in Canada: What do we know?

Pervasive and Profound: The impact of income volatility on Canadians, Derek Burleton, TD Economics
Income and Expense Volatility Survey Results, Patrick Ens, Capital One
Neighbourhood Financial Health Index: Making the Invisible Visible, Katherine Scott, Canadian Council on Social Development

What gets inspected, gets respected: Do we have the data we need to tackle household financial instability?

Do we have the data we need to tackle household financial instability?, Catherine Van Rompaey, Statistics Canada

Emerging solutions

Income volatility: Strategies for helping families reduce or manage it, David S. Mitchell, Aspen Intitute
Building consumer financial health: The role of financial institutions and FinTech, Rob Levy, CFSI
Redesigning Social Policy for the 21st Century, Sunil Johal, Mowat Centre
Strengthening retirement security for low- and moderate-income workers, Johnathan Weisstub, Common Wealth

Research symposium: Overcoming barriers to tax filing for people with low incomes

The research symposium "Overcoming barriers to tax filing for people with low incomes" was held in Ottawa on Thursday, February 7, 2019, hosted by Prosper Canada and Intuit.

The symposium presents research results and insights from practitioners in the field on barriers to tax filing experienced by people with low incomes, challenges and opportunities in tax filing and benefits assistance programs, strategies to boost tax filing, and innovations in tax filing assistance.

Barriers to tax filing experienced by people with low incomes

Income tax filing and benefits take-up: Challenges and opportunities for Canadians living on low income, Uttam Bajwa, University of Toronto
Tax time insights, Nirupa Varatharasan, Prosper Canada
“Stories from the field”: Contextualizing the barriers Indigenous People face, Erin Jeffery, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)

Closing the tax-filing gap: Challenges and opportunities

The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, Nancy McKenna, CVITP, Canada Revenue Agency
Supporting organizations in the CVITP, Aaron Kozak, Employment and Social Development Canada, and Melissa Valencia, Canada Revenue Agency
A Realist analysis of nonprofit tax filing services, Kevin Schachter, University of Manitoba and SEED Winnipeg

National and regional strategies to boost tax filing

The Community Volunteer Income Income Tax Program, Nancy McKenna, Canada Revenue Agency
GetYourBenefits! Diagnose and Treat Poverty, Dr. Noralou Roos, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
Get your piece of the money pie, Althea Arsenault, New Brunswick Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation

Innovations in tax filing assistance

Scaling tax filing assistance, John Silver, Community Financial Counselling Service (CFCS)
Virtual Tax Filing Pilot, Radya Cherkaoui, Intuit Canada, and Steve Vanderherberg, Woodgreen Community Services
Innovative use of technology for VITA, German Tejeda,

Recover and Rebuild: Helping Canadians build financial security during the pandemic and beyond

Recover and Rebuild: Helping Canadians build financial security during the pandemic and beyond