Five Good Ideas about using human-centred design for social change

With a growing number of barriers to accessing vital services, we need to think critically about accessibility and people’s services experiences in the social and public sector. Human-centred design is an approach which centres the voices and lived experiences of people who are impacted in the design or re-design of a program or service.

During this session, Galen MacLusky and Nandita Bijur of Prosper Canada share the mindsets and principles that have helped their organization introduce and integrate human-centred design into their projects. Specifically, you will hear how they used human-centred design in their work integrating financial empowerment into municipal services and in designing impactful frontline services for people living on low incomes. Human-centred design can often feel overwhelming, but this session will help you think about small shifts you can implement in your practice and decision-making that could make a big difference.



ABLE 2021: Virtual 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.



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

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

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

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

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

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


Self-care for frontline practitioners: Challenges and Strategies

As practitioners continue to deliver important client-centred services during the COVID-19 pandemic, this can be accompanied by feelings of burnout or compassion fatigue. It can be helpful to establish or renew your practice of self-care, fostering your own physical and mental health during trying times. 

In this one-hour webinar, mental health educator, Rebecca Higgins will guide audience participants to identify challenges and strategies to developing a self-care practice or build further on existing practices. Participants will be guided through an activity to take inventory of their self-care practices to access supports and personal sense of purpose in their work.  

Hosted by Prosper Canada on behalf of the ABLE Steering Committee. Visit ablefinancialempowerment.org for a full list of upcoming events in the series. 



Read the presentation slides for this webinar.

Click ‘Get it’ above for video link for this webinar.

Handout: Implementing a practice of self-care

Providing one-on-one financial coaching to newcomers: Insights for frontline service providers

One-on-one financial help is a key financial empowerment (FE) intervention that Prosper Canada is working to pilot, scale and integrate into other social services, in collaboration with FE partners across the country. FE is increasingly gaining traction as an effective poverty reduction measure. FE interventions include financial coaching and supports that assist people to build money management skills, access income benefits, tackle debt, learn about safe financial products and services and find ways to save for emergencies.

This report shares insights on providing one-on-one financial coaching to newcomers captured through two financial coaching pilot projects that Prosper Canada conducted in collaboration with several frontline community partners.



Homelessness and Brain Injury – Program Findings

Across Canada, homelessness has always existed but with the creation of statistical reporting across the country the awareness of the pressure this puts on Canadian society is more apparent. The statistics on homelessness are staggering and understanding the path to homelessness, included by those who have experienced brain injury, is a critical piece in the prevention strategies that must be implemented in order to solve the issues. 

In 2018 the Brain Injury Society of Toronto (BIST) received Ontario Trillium Seed Grant funding for a Homelessness Prevention Coordinator (HPC) whose role was to assist individuals with cognitive disabilities with housing issues. This report discusses the current homeless crisis and its relation to the findings of this project.

 



Protecting vulnerable clients: A practical guide for the financial services industry

Firms and representatives in the financial services industry occasionally encounter situations where a client’s vulnerability causes the client to make decisions that are contrary to his or her financial interests, needs or objectives or that leave him or her exposed to potential financial mistreatment.

Because of the relationships they develop with their clients and the knowledge they acquire about clients’ financial needs or objectives over time, firms and representatives in the financial sector can play a key role in helping people who are in a vulnerable situation protect their financial well-being. They are instrumental in preventing and detecting financial mistreatment among consumers of financial services. Firms and representatives can also help clients experiencing financial mistreatment get the assistance they need.

This guide proposes possible courses of action to protect vulnerable clients. Its purpose is to provide financial sector participants with guidance on the steps they can take to help protect clients’ financial well-being, prevent and detect financial mistreatment, and assist clients who are experiencing this type of mistreatment.



Take the stress out of tax filing for people on low incomes

This is a one-hour webinar on the tax filing experiences of Canadians living on low incomes, and some successful strategies frontline practitioners can use to reduce stress at tax time for participants, in their delivery of community tax clinics. The speakers in this webinar are:

  • Nirupa Varatharasan, Prosper Canada, Toronto, ON
  • Jen Smerdon, The Working Centre, Kitchener-Waterloo, ON

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



Read the presentation slides for this webinar

Handouts for this webinar:
Tax time insights research report – webinar handout (Prosper Canada)
Income tax checklist – webinar handout (The Working Centre)
Form for missing income information – webinar handout (The Working Centre)
Income tax return summary sheet – webinar handout (The Working Centre)
Host checklist for tax clinics – webinar handout (The Working Centre)
Forms for rental information – webinar handout (The Working Centre)
Referral to FEPS – webinar handout (The Working Centre)

Time-stamps for the video-recording:
3:10 – Introductions and Agenda
6:32 – Audience polls
10:52 – Tax time insights: Experiences of people living on low incomes (Speaker: Nirupa Varatharasan)
26:00 – The Working Centre tax clinic experiences (Speaker: Jen Smerdon)

How to use the ‘Managing your money’ resource

This webinar is all about Managing your money, a resource developed to support money conversations and workshops with Indigenous individuals or families.

We all strive to achieve a good life or Miyupimaatisiiun. The Managing your money booklet offers a series of seven simple and engaging worksheets to help set and work towards money goals with a focus on budgeting. Learn what is included in these colourful worksheets, how to use them in workshops or one-on-one support settings, and practice some of the activities together. 

The speakers are:

  • Simon Brascoupé, Vice-President, Education and Training, AFOA Canada
  • Natasha McKenna, Program Officer, Prosper Canada
  • Glenna Harris, Manager, Learning & Training, Prosper Canada

This is the video recording of the webinar.

Click here to read the slides for the 'How to use the managing your money resource' webinar.



Family-Centred Coaching Toolkit


This is a set of tools and resources developed by The Prosperity Agenda to implement a holistic vision of financial coaching for individuals and families.

(Note: Accessing the toolkit requires submitting user information).




Managing your money: Tools and tips to help you meet your goals


Bright, beautiful, interactive and simple to use, Managing your money offers a series of seven worksheets to help Indigenous individuals and families to set and work towards money goals. Each financial topic and activity features artwork by Simon Brascoupé paired with a teaching from the animal world that draws on their skills, strengths and experiences in managing resources. These worksheets are designed to facilitate one-on-one conversations or to be used in financial education workshops.  They can be used in the order they appear, or in a different order that fits best with the individual. 

 

View the webinar about how to use 'Managing your money' and access the facilitator resources.