Discover financial empowerment resources
Discover financial empowerment resources
This 60-minute webinar for frontline practitioners, social service providers, and funders shares insights from a two-year project designed to help build financial wellness in isolated and rural First Nation communities in Manitoba and Ontario. Partnerships between First Nation communities and...
Every year, scammers take advantage of income tax filing season to try to trick Canadians into divulging sensitive personal information that scammers can use to commit fraud or into sending money to pay off fictitious "debts". How to spot most tax season scams There are often red flags that the...
Canada's homeless encampments are a national human rights crisis. A growing number of people in Canada are having to live in tents or informal shelters to survive due to a lack of affordable housing, limited support services, and nowhere safe to go. Recognizing the severity of this crisis, the...
Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent human rights issues in the world. Worldwide, an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime. GBV is a multifaceted issue that undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of women and has a...
Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy is a community-based program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness across Canada. This program provides funding to urban, Indigenous, rural and remote communities to help them address their local homelessness needs. Click "Access this resource"...
If you work with people in Canada living on low incomes, you can play a meaningful role in supporting access to benefits regardless of your expertise or sector. Prosper Canada identified 36 barriers that individuals living on low incomes face when trying to access benefits. More than half of the...
Community organizations play a vital role in supporting people. In these difficult economic times, helping community members strengthen their financial literacy and build their financial resilience is essential for helping them to navigate financial challenges. Building on Financial Consumer...
The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) is a partnership between the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and local community organizations. The program is intended to ensure that all taxpayers have equal access to the tax system. In Grey and Bruce Counties, 14 community organizations provide...
This toolkit was created to support the Virtual Self Filing tax filing model piloted in 2020-2022 by Canadian community agencies. In this model, individuals file their own tax returns, but receive support from community agency staff or volunteers to do so. In 2023, this toolkit was updated to...
The Expanding Economic Opportunity Through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (EEOVITA) cohort has been working to identify and engage targeted, underserved populations most at risk for missing out on the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) benefit. This project, which began in January 2022 and concludes...
Organizations play a vital role in providing community members with access to benefits. Tax clinics, homeless shelters, food banks, health centres and others can all do their part to provide these services. This free 60-minute demonstration will showcase our new Bridge to Benefits tool which...
Fresh perspectives and new approaches are needed to generate results and effectively address the complexity and interconnectedness of the social and environmental issues confronting communities. It is imperative that we build our collective capacity in the practice of community innovation. It is...
The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate released their annual report to the federal Housing Minister, outlining findings from submissions they received from 2022 to 2023 through their online public submission process that allows people from across Canada to report directly to the Advocate...
The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) is continuing its efforts to help Canadians experiencing serious financial difficulties find the right debt solution. These efforts include increasing consumer awareness about the unregulated Debt Advisory Marketplace and helping consumers...
Between the high cost of living and inflation, many of us are struggling with debt. But with financial advice available everywhere - from your uncle’s friend to social media influencers, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and hard to know whose advice you can trust. Learning some key warning...
A recent Prosper Canada report shows that Canadians with low incomes are increasingly financially vulnerable but lack access to the financial help they need to rebuild their financial health. People with low incomes are unlikely to find help when they need it to plan financially, develop and adhere...
Building the Case provides evidence for the federal government to urgently step up to support single, working-age adults in Canada. This group experiences Canada’s highest and deepest rates of poverty and some of the country’s highest rates of food insecurity. By analyzing publicly...
Bridge to benefits: Implementing benefits access in social service has been created for organizations that are interested in starting, refining or expanding their work in access to benefits services. This includes benefits services such as helping to fill out applications, providing access to...
Searching for government benefits can feel like wading through a huge ocean of information. With so many benefits programs out there, it can be hard to know where to start. This webinar will teach you how to help people seeking ways to boost their incomes and/or reduce their expenses by...
Digital literacy skills have become essential. Computers and other digital devices are increasingly part of everyday life; they’ve changed how we do things, and they’re going to keep changing how we do things. To keep up, we need to keep learning so that we can continue to thrive at home, at...
During the income tax filing season, scammers pose as representatives of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in an attempt to trick you into sending payment for fictitious "debts" or into providing sensitive personal information that they can use to commit fraud. Learn more on how to spot tax season...
Centering equity is key to the purpose and mission of any collective impact work, no matter the issue area or focus. It is very difficult to move population or systems change without redressing disparities that exist in almost every community. Part of the challenge is there is not one path to...
The Annual Report by the Office of the taxpayer's ombudsman provides key achievements, identifies Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) service issues and outlines trends in complaints. In addition, the report includes three recommendations to the Minister of National Revenue and the Chair of the Board of...
Canada’s National Advisory Council on Poverty’s second Annual Report, Understanding Systems, is the first report to provide a glimpse into poverty since COVID-19. Based on community engagements with Canadians and provinces/territories over the last year, the Council has recommended five...
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...