This guide summarizes ways of preventing and intervening in situations of financial abuse of...

Many people need financial help to ensure the health and well-being of their families. This pamphlet can help you understand what financial resources exist to assist you as you raise your grandchildren. It can help you understand how to apply for these resources and who to contact for further...

This guide informs on power of attorney as a legal aspect of financial literacy. Power of Attorney is a legal document that gives another person the power, or right, to make decisions for you. The person you authorize to make decisions for you is called the attorney. The attorney should be someone...

This guide summarizes retirement savings options for people living in...

A budget contains a list of your planned and actual expenses and your income, which includes all of the money you receive from work, government and investments.Using a budget helps you see exactly how you are spending your money so that there are no surprises. A budget benefits you, so it is...

This guide informs on credit and debt in Canada, including types of credit, credit cards, dealing with collection agencies, and tips for managing...

This guide summarizes banking practices in Canada, including opening an account, bank cards, and types of...

The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) developed the Pandemic to Prosperity series. It builds on NCoC’s data infrastructure and advocacy network developed for its national Civic Health Index, with The New Orleans Index, which informed many public and private decisions and actions...

Financial empowerment (FE) is an approach to poverty reduction that focuses on improving the financial security of people living on low income. Evidence shows that embedding FE interventions into municipal welfare, employment, housing, shelter and health services can significantly boost service...

Population health survey data are not routinely linked to specific health care organizations, limiting organizational capacity to assess performance improvements in relation to the observed risk and prevalence of differences in health. The lack of demographic information hinders the growth of...

More than $3.89 billion in federal income taxes have been returned to those with modest wages as a result of free tax preparation services offered by IRS-certified volunteers in 2014. A new breakdown of national IRS data shows that tax preparers at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites and...

In June 2005, Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI), the Policy Research Initiative (PRI), and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) organized Canadians and Their Money: A National Symposium on Financial Capability. The conference stemmed from an initial examination by SEDI...

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...

This study addresses these gaps in the literature through an evaluation of a nationwide credit counselling program called Sharpen Your Financial Focus, an initiative launched by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) in September of 2013.  The Sharpen initiative builds upon and...

Ideally, a proactive purposeful policy framework or national housing strategy will seek to minimize both market and administrative failure. In thinking about how to frame and shape a national housing strategy, we might start with the overall housing system and separately examine how well – or not...

The Prosperity Now Scorecard is a comprehensive resource featuring data on family financial health and policy recommendations to help put all U.S. households on a path to prosperity. The Scorecard equips advocates, policymakers and practitioners with national, state, and local data to...

The 2018 national report card “Bold Ambitions for Child Poverty Eradication in Canada,” provides a current snapshot of child and family poverty and demonstrates the need for a costed implementation plan to eradicate child poverty in this generation. In advance of the 30th year of the...

Over 50+ mayors in the United States have joined a national initiative Mayor’s for Guaranteed Income (MGI). Many advocates and practitioners now believe the moment has arrived for a guaranteed Income with an equity lens. In this webinar, perspectives from a diverse group of thought leaders...

Bank On coalitions are locally-led partnerships between local public officials; city, state, and federal government agencies; financial institutions; and community organizations that work together to help improve the financial stability of unbanked and underbanked individuals and families in their...

Bank On coalitions are locally-led partnerships between local public officials; city, state, and federal government agencies; financial institutions; and community organizations that work together to help improve the financial stability of unbanked and underbanked individuals and families in their...

Local Interventions for Financial Empowerment through Utility Payments initiative (LIFT-UP) was a two-year pilot project conducted by the National League of Cities (NLC) in five cities. LIFT-UP offers city leaders a “win-win” scenario, allowing city utilities to recoup lost revenue due to...

We still have limited understanding of many issues regarding asset–building policies. What is the role of asset–based approaches in addressing poverty and social exclusion? What does the evidence tell us regarding the advantages and limitations of asset–based policies? What are the...

This collection of financial empowerment tools and resources is intended to support both Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations working to build financial wellness in First Nation communities. It was created as part of the Financial Wellness in First Nations project (2021-2023) where...

All Canadians aspire to a quality of life that provides access to opportunity for themselves and their families. We at SEDI know that there are basic requirements, which form the underpinnings of achieving this goal. They are education, health care, employment and income security, wealth...

This report summarizes the main themes, ideas and discussion points that emerged from the fourth national conference on financial literacy, which was hosted by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) in Vancouver, B.C. on November 6 and 7, 2014. The conference brought together the top issues...