Discover financial empowerment resources
Discover financial empowerment resources
AFN's 2023 Annual Report gives a high level review of their work last year. For 19 years, AFN has provided a forum for grantmakers and financial institutions to connect, collaborate, and collectively invest in helping more people achieve economic security. This report reflects our work over the...
The Canada Disability Benefit is an opportunity to guarantee that people with disabilities can live a life with dignity and have an adequate standard of living. For the new Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) to meet its goal of financially supporting and reducing poverty of people with disabilities,...
Longevity literacy is an understanding of how long people tend to live upon reaching retirement age. It is particularly important since retirement income security requires planning, saving, and preparing for a period that is uncertain in length. This matters because longevity literacy is...
The Asset Funders Network engages philanthropy to advance equitable wealth building and economic mobility. For 18 years, AFN has provided a forum for grantmakers to connect, collaborate, and collectively invest in helping more people achieve economic security. This report reflects their work over...
The Association of Canadian Pension Management (ACPM) launched its new Retirement Savings Course to empower Canadians wishing to learn the basics of retirement savings and to foster awareness of the importance of retirement income savings at any age. Course highlights: Self-paced learning on...
The Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing (CISP) is a new national hub to link people and share practices that connect people to community-based supports and services that can help improve their health and...
AFN's 2021 Annual Report gives a high level review of our work last year, including some snapshots into the place-based initiatives in our regions. Across our regions, AFN is working with grantmakers on collaborative efforts to advance equitable wealth building and economic mobility. One example...
This article uses data from a recent crowdsourcing data initiative to report on the employment and financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indigenous participants. It also examines the extent to which Indigenous participants applied for and received federal income support to alleviate these...
The new Economic and Social Inclusion plan for New Brunswick builds upon progress accomplished over the past 10 years. It includes nine priority actions divided into three pillars: Income Security: includes actions addressing improvements to social assistance, changes to the Employment...
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...
The Dimensions of Poverty Hub, sponsored by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), enables Canadians to track progress on poverty reduction. The updates as of September 2020 include poverty statistics based upon the new 2018-base Market Basket Measure...
This report provides an overview of financial health and the policy responses around the world. Based on this, and the key questions of whether financial health measure more than income and if financial inclusion supports financial health, the report offers recommendations to policy makers on...
This policy backgrounder provides an overview of how provincial and territorial governments have decided to treat receipt of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for those receiving social assistance and/or living in subsidized housing. It also looks at provisions for youth aging out of...
Narrowing the definition of disability used by the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) could have serious implications. Improving the program’s assessment process would yield better results for applicants, Ontario's social safety net, and the government. This report explores the role of...
This is a study released by Insights on Canadian Society based on 2016 Census data. Census information on immigration and income is used to better understand the factors associated with low income among senior immigrants. This study examines the factors associated with the low-income rate of...
These reports look at the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance (often called “welfare”), taking into account tax credits and other benefits along with social assistance itself. The reports look at four different household types for each province and territory....
This report discusses the interactions between finances and mental health, based on the experience of over 5000 individuals who have lived with mental health problems. Mental health problems leading to relationship difficulties, physical health problems, mental health treatments, cognitive...
Short-term cushions are key to longer-term financial security and well-being. This report shines a light on the central role that short-term financial stability plays in a person’s ability to reach broader financial security and upward economic mobility, a measurement of whether an...
By providing a refundable credit at tax time, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is widely viewed as a successful public policy that is both antipoverty and pro-work. But most of its benefits have gone to workers with children. Paycheck Plus is a test of a more generous credit for low-income...
By 2003, the savings and asset building field had achieved critical research and policy successes. However, some challenges it faced were the lack of a substantial presence of organizations of color in the field and the absence of experts of color at decision-making tables. Over the course of 11...
The disability income system is an agglomeration of disparate programs that were designed for distinct purposes. That reality would not actually be a bad thing if at least all the pieces worked well together. A new Basic Income for persons with disabilities would enable the reform of both the...
In its 2016 budget, the Government of Ontario committed to conducting a basic income pilot project as part of its preparations for comprehensive reform of its social assistance programs. Taking particular note of “today’s dynamic labour market” and a need to “strengthen the attachment to...
A substantial number of immigrants are not only blocked from entering the professions for which they trained and were then recruited to Canada, but a substantial portion of them are not in any type or form of secure employment. Instead, Canadian newcomers often face substandard, precarious and...
This is a case study of "The Johnsons," a family studied as part of the U.S. Financial Diaries project. The Johnsons have significant challenges keeping their family afloat. Despite multiple sources of income, which include education aid, their income is volatile and irregular. Their expenses also...
New financial services cannot increase household incomes. However, there is tremendous potential for high-quality financial services to help households achieve greater financial health and better manage income uncertainty. In this research note, we explore the concept of uncertain incomes through...