Financial literacy courses for Canadian students

Teachers may incorporate two gamified financial literacy courses that are currently freely available into their lessons.

Students can now access two age-appropriate courses designed to help boost students' financial knowledge and confidence at any stage of their financial journey.

Course titles:

  1.  Money Management Foundations* (Grades 6 - 12)
    • Money Management and Budgeting
  2. Money Management After High School* (Grades 9 - 12)
    • Managing My Money After High School

Students will explore resources and tools on the FCAC website that they will be able to use well beyond high school.

*Students can earn a completion certificate issued by the FCAC and ChatterHigh!



Redefining financial vulnerability in Canada

How we define financial vulnerability ultimately determines what supports are created and for whom. Is the current definition aimed at helping everyone who needs it?

This webinar explores the conception and redefining of financial vulnerability in Canada based on the research and findings from the book Financial Vulnerability in Canada: The Embedded Experience of Households. These research findings will then be highlighted through discussion of first-hand frontline experiences, with a focus on importance of providing financial help services using a trauma-informed approach.

The webinar speakers are:

  • Jerry Buckland (Canadian Mennonite University)
  • Brenda Spotton Visano (York University)
  • Margaret Yu (Momentum)

This webinar will benefit frontline practitioners supporting those in financially vulnerable situations, as well as those who influence or inform policy decisions. 

Click 'Get it' below to access the video link, and scroll down to access slides, handouts, and video timestamps for this webinar.



Read the presentation slides for this webinar.

Download the handout for this webinar: Flyer for ‘Redefining Financial Vulnerability in Canada: The Embedded Experience of Households’.

Time-stamps for the video recording:
3:31 – Agenda and Introductions
7:15 – Redefining financial vulnerability in Canada (speaker: Jerry Buckland and Brenda Spotton Visano)
24:33 – Audience poll question 1
27:07– Audience poll questions 2 & 3
33:57 – Audience poll question 4
38:00 – Financial Empowerment (Speaker: Margaret Yu)
52:15– Q&A


Translated financial terms

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has developed resources to help multilingual communities and newcomers in a selection of languages. The translated financial terms are available in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog.

This website has many other multi-lingual resources, covering a range of topics from opening a bank account, money transfers, money management, debt collection and many others. Some terms are US based but most are universal. 

 



Momentum’s Money Management Courses

Momentum is a change-making organization that acts as a bridge by taking an economic approach to poverty reduction and adding a social perspective to economic development initiatives.

Our programs are holistic, covering everything from financial literacy, entrepreneurship and employment training, to developing communication skills, building self-confidence and establishing positive social networks.

Our work is focused in the following 3 areas:

  • Programs and services for people that are living on low incomes to increase their ability to manage and save money, train for and maintain good jobs, or start a business. Built on the sustainable livelihoods model, Momentum’s programs work to build livelihood assets—connections, sense of self, basics needs and services, skills and knowledge, and finances—that lead to increased income and assets, and ultimately an exit from poverty.
  • Support to communities and businesses to build and sustain the local economy from the ground up through Community Economic Development education and resources.
  • Community leadership working with community partners, academics, civil servants and elected officials to support innovative  systems-change approaches to poverty reduction, promote best-practices through evaluation and research, and influence public policies to remove barriers and allow people to be more financially stable.

Check out our on demand money management workshops



Financial Coaching Initiative: Results and Lessons Learned

In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched the Financial Coaching Initiative, a pilot program that provided financial coaching services to veterans and economically vulnerable consumers. Professional coaches were embedded into 60 host sites across the country, where they provided free, one-on-one help to consumers to address their personal financial goals. A range of organizations served as host sites, such as one-stop career centers, social services organizations, and legal aid groups.

Over four years, the Financial Coaching Initiative served over 23,000 consumers, demonstrating that financial coaching can be successfully implemented at scale in many different settings for a wide range of consumers.

This report and summary brief describe the basic structure of the Initiative, present data about the program’s results, and summarize key lessons learned for practitioners and organizations interested in coaching. 



Practitioner tools for navigating financial exchanges with family and friends

Financial educators are particularly aware of the prevalence of these types of financial arrangements – otherwise known as family financial exchanges (FFEs). To support practitioners helping clients through these often sensitive conversations about these arrangements, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released the Friends and Family Exchanges Toolkit , a four-part guide for coaching clients in asking for financial help or changing an existing agreement due to their own financial hardship.



Designing a remote financial help service

Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown, community service agencies across Canada have had to rapidly adapt the way they engage and support people in the community. ​ A growing number of Canadians need (or soon will need) support as they deal with the financial strain brought on by an unprecedented global pandemic. ​Community agencies would like to help connect people to support and there is increased interest in how to deliver that support remotely. ​

Over a nine-month period beginning mid 2020, and with funding from Capital One, Prosper Canada worked alongside service design firm Bridgeable and community agencies in Manitoba, British Columbia, and Ontario to study the remote delivery of financial help services in each setting. The research was followed by a period of learning, sharing and data collection reflected in the reports and toolkit published here.



Reports
These slide decks describe the goals and outcomes of this project.
Socialization deck: Supporting the design of a remote financial help service (Bridgeable)

Client Journey maps
These journey maps offer a visual explanation of the process used by the 3 participating community agencies offering one-on-one client support.
Family Services of Greater Vancouver
SEED Winnipeg
Thunder Bay Counselling

Toolkit
This toolkit was developed in collaboration with community partners, and shares tools for coaches and clients in the virtual one-on-one process.
Virtual service delivery tools (Toolkit)

Responding to Client’s “Now, Soon, & Later” Needs

This is a three-part webinar series exploring how practitioners, policymakers, and product developers are supporting the diverse savings needs of LMI households during the ongoing crisis. Solutions that help families save flexibly for short, intermediate, and/or long-term goals that address their current and future needs are discussed.



2019 Financial Coaching Network Bi-Monthly Peer Call Series

These calls, featuring guest practitioners, cover a variety of topics most pressing to the financial coaching field, provide useful tips and resources and serve as a peer-learning platform.

Topics include:

Financial Coaching Program Design Guide

(2/28) - The Role of Financial Technology in Addressing Racial Economic Inequality (Recording)

(2/28) - The Role of Financial Technology in Addressing Racial Economic Inequality (Slides)

(4/18) - Core Competencies for Financial Coaches: Navigating Identity Differences (Recording)

(4/18) - Core Competencies for Financial Coaches: Navigating Identity Differences (Slides)

(6/27) - Supporting Coaches (Recording)

(6/27) - Supporting Coaches (Slides)

(10/17) - New Brief On the Frontlines lifts up Coaches’ Perspectives​ (Recording)

(10/17) - New Brief On the Frontlines lifts up Coaches’ Perspectives​ (Slides)

(12/16) - Building Organizational Capacity to Serve People with Disabilities (Recording)

(12/16) - Building Organizational Capacity to Serve People with Disabilities (Slides)



Investing in Financial Coaching with a Racial Equity Lens

In this moment, it is pivotal for philanthropy to support communities of color in achieving financial well-being. Combined with systems-change efforts that would create fairer economic opportunities and conditions, financial coaching is a vital component of providing needed support. Through background information, case stories, and key investment considerations, this brief focuses on financial coaching with a racial equity lens as an important strategy for helping people of color achieve equitable outcomes.



The Pivotal Role of Human Service Practitioners in Building Financial Capability

This report shares remarks by Mae Watson Grote, Founder and CEO of The Financial Clinic, at the Coin A Better Future conference in May 2018.

The journey from financial insecurity to security, and eventually, mobility—what we conceptualize and even romanticize as the quintessential American experience—is one that far too often ensnares people at the insecurity stage, particularly those communities or neighborhoods that have historically been marginalized and deliberately excluded from the traditional pathway towards prosperity. Fraught with debt and credit crises, alongside a myriad of predatory products and lending practices, to a sense of stigma and shame many Americans feel because of their economic status, financial insecurity involves navigating a world on a daily basis where everyday needs are at the mercy of unjust and uncontrollable variables.



Real Money, Real Experts Podcasts

Real Money, Real Experts is a personal finance podcast written and produced by AFCPE (Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education). Their membership community offers a place for financial counsellors and financial fitness coaches to share best practices, solve similar struggles, and access tools and resources.

Recent episodes include the following topics:

  • Economic Self-Sufficiency: How Financial Professionals Support Individuals with Disabilities
  • Empowering Communities after COVID-19
  • Where Race & Gender Intersect: Why the Wealth Gap is Widening and How to Help

 



Wealth and Health Equity: Investing in Structural Change

Building on the Asset Funders Network’s the Health and Wealth Connection: Investment Opportunities Across the Life Course brief, this paper details:

  • What we know about the health-wealth connection for adults.
  • Why investment in integration is important.
  • How philanthropy can contribute to improving health-wealth outcomes for adults.

On September 29th, AFN hosted a webinar to release the paper with featured speakers:

Dr. Annie Harper, Ph.D., Program for Recovery and Community Health, Yale School of Medicine
Joelle-Jude Fontaine, Sr. Program Officer, Human Services, The Kresge Foundation
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chief of Race, Wealth, and Community, National Community Reinvestment Coalition



Indicators for Financial Empowerment: Learnings from the National Financial Empowerment Champions Project

This resource offers a set of common indicators that community organizations can use to measure the reach and impact of their financial empowerment (FE) programming. It is intended for any community organization that works to foster greater financial well-being for economically disadvantaged Canadians.

This resource compiles the key performance indicators (KPIs) and presents them for use by community organizations beyond the National Financial Empowerment Champions (FECs) partners. The KPIs have been refined in response to partners’ feedback and in recognition of developments in the FE field, ensuring that the definitions reflect current and best practices in the field of financial empowerment/financial literacy in Canada and the USA.