The Financial Literacy Skills Project aims to work with younger adults making the transition from unemployment to work, especially single parents, young men, ex-offenders and refugees. The project is flexible, focusing on assessing the needs of the learners and providing training relevant to those needs. The project can provide one off talks on particular issues, group sessions and one to one sessions. The sessions can be provided in the bureau or at partner agencies.
Content of the course is relevant to the clients life situations and includes selecting credit and insurance, budgeting for priority expenditure, choosing and using utilities and the availability of in work benefits.
The project uses resources already available, including the Adult Financial Capability Framework but also emphasises self-empowerment, eg using the internet for information.
North Liverpool has been involved for three years providing financial literacy education in schools and has produced a resource pack Money Talk which was launched at a successful conference in October 2002. The project was limited to schools in Norris Green and Anfield, it has now been extended to cover the whole of North Liverpool.
To download the Money Talk Summer 2005 newsletter please note these pdf files require Adobe Acrobat Reader to open them.
Download: Money Talk Newsletter
The North Liverpool bureau covers seven wards and represents over 100,000 people. This is an area of high deprivation with a high proportion of people on income support. Information from research conducted by Liverpool John Moores University on how people on low incomes access credit, MORI research results and the NACAB Summing Up report have highlighted the link between lack of financial literacy and debt.
The bureau provides IT resources, administration and Volunteers; this partnership within the bureau is crucial to the success of the project. Other partnerships within the bureau will be with the Money Advice Team who will refer clients to the project and advise on content, the Volunteering Development and Training Project which will recruit, train and support money mentors and the Generalist Advice Units who will promote awareness of the project, refer clients where appropriate and provide advice volunteers participating as money mentors.
Local Voluntary, community and statutory organisations likely to become referral partners include: the probation service; Sure Start and other parent groups; Job Centres; New Deal organisations; refugee support groups and Credit Unions. The bureau already has links with all of these and has provided introductory talks to some although resources have limited these. It will be vital to the success of the project that learners are referred by these partner organisations.
In October 2004 the Project received additional funding from the DWP. This funding is to allow the Project to:
These topics have now been added to our training menu.
Learners will be referred by the Money Advice Team and Generalist Advice Units within the bureaux and by other local bureaux and by other local advice agencies. External partners, eg the probation service, Sure Start and other parent groups, Job Centres, New Deal organisations, refugee support groups and Credit Unions, also refer learners.
The Financial Literacy Skills Project is part of Financial Skills for Life, a new three-year national financial literacy programme developed by Citizens Advice in partnership with Prudential plc.
North Liverpool Citizens Advice Bureau is a company limited by guarantee. Limited Company No 3662414, registered in England. Registered Charity No 1073448. Registered office: 36/38 Breckfield Road North, Liverpool, L5 4NH. Tel: 0151 285 1080.