FCAC's Financial Literacy Newsletter

If you would like to share a financial literacy success story with FCAC, please contact Martine Bélanger: martine.belanger@fcac-acfc.gc.ca.

 What's next for FCAC: Developing a financial education program for adults

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), in partnership with Ontario's Investor Education Fund (IEF) and Québec's Autorité des marché financiers (AMF), is developing a new Adult Basic Financial Education Resource aimed at increasing the financial life skills of adult Canadians. This resource will be made available across Canada in both French and English and will be offered in both hard copy and multimedia format (on the Web, with a video component) to meet the needs of both self-learners and classroom learners who benefit from the assistance of educators and/or trainers within community-based organizations and the workplace.

To assist in the development of this resource, FCAC and its partners have created a consultative committee comprised of experts on financial literacy and financial education, stakeholders who work with the target audience as well as academics and other professionals who deliver financial education.

The objective is to provide adults and educators with a high quality learning resource, covering topics such as budgeting, credit and debt, savings and investment, retirement planning and fraud, among other topics. The resource will be drafted with a clear and effective language and a presentation style that makes it easily accessible to the different types of trainers and learners.

The goal is to make available a hardcopy modular format that will be distributed as a complete educational kit, including lesson plans, overheads and handouts. In addition, an alternative multimedia format will be available via FCAC's, IEF's and AMF's Web sites or on DVDs for self-learners and to educators for use in the classroom. The multimedia format will include short video clips explaining different fundamental concepts of finances, accompanied by a learning workbook and references for more details.

The resource will be available in 2011. Please stay tuned for more details to come.

 New Horizons for Seniors Program: Helping seniors protect themselves against financial abuse

The federal New Horizons for Seniors Program funds projects that help ensure that seniors can benefit from, and contribute to, the quality of life in their communities through active living and participation in social activities.

The Program's three components – Community Participation and Leadership, Capital Assistance, and Elder Abuse Awareness – applies to projects that range from enabling seniors to share their knowledge, wisdom and experiences with others, to improving facilities for seniors' programs and activities, and to raising awareness of elder abuse. Over 6,000 projects have been funded in communities across Canada since the program commenced in 2004.

The Elder Abuse Awareness component supports the development of national, provincial/territorial, or regional awareness activities for seniors, their families, and service providers to help prevent the abuse of older adults. Abuse can take many forms, including financial, physical, psychological, emotional, or verbal abuse, as well as neglect or denial of entitlements protected by law.

Funded projects have addressed, for example, awareness and knowledge of issues relevant to arranging one's legal affairs to protect seniors against financial abuse, and increasing organizational capacity to raise awareness among seniors about fraud through the creation of a bilingual instructional toolkit.

In its 2010 Budget, the Government of Canada announced an increase of $5M annually to the Program, to fund projects focused on volunteering and raising awareness of financial abuse among seniors. Please visit the Program's Web site for upcoming Calls for Proposals.

 Have you taken The Financial Fitness Challenge?

Each year, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) invites young Canadians to increase their financial literacy by taking the Financial Fitness Challenge. The program is designed to encourage youth to improve their financial capabilities and money management skills and to raise youth's awareness of concepts such as budgeting, saving and investing.

This year, the Challenge ran from February 15 to April 15, 2010, and featured a new interactive Web site where young Canadians were quizzed on their financial knowledge and engaged in discussions on financial topics. Participants were encouraged to use Twitter and Facebook to interact with the Financial Fitness Challenge, as well as each other, and share their own money saving tips and ideas.

By visiting www.financialfitnesschallenge.ca and answering daily questions, young Canadians earned points to win prizes, including a notebook computer (one per province or territory) and a $2000 national grand prize! This year's grand prize winner is Patricia Lee-Kim, from Mississauga, Ontario. To find out who the other winners are from each province and territory, please visit the Challenge's Web site.

Although the contest for 2010 has now ended, youth can still visit the Web site, play the game and fine tune their financial knowledge in preparation for next year's edition. The Web site also offers free downloadable, bilingual classroom materials, including complete lesson plans, for teachers. So don't wait, now is the time to get fit for next year's Challenge!

Parents and teens agree: Financial literacy is a family affair

Many Canadian families are having the “money talk” at home. That's just one of the findings in a new survey of Canadian parents and their teenage children commissioned by the Canadian Bankers Association. The survey found that 92 per cent of parents and 81 per cent of teenagers report talking about money and financial matters at home together. Moreover, 73 per cent of teens say that their parents are their number one source of information about managing money.

The survey also found that both parents and teens have a good handle on basic money management skills like budgeting and saving. However, when asked about more sophisticated capabilities, like investing and understanding personal credit history, the survey results showed that the teens' skills were less well-developed, but they also showed that this knowledge did improve with age, which may be a case of ability and confidence increasing with experience.

Interestingly, not only do teens acknowledge the importance of their parents' role in their financial education, they also give high marks to their parents for their money management skills. The survey found that 84 per cent of parents rate themselves as good with their own personal money management and teens agreed, with 84 per cent describing their parents' money management skills as good.

More information about the survey results can be found on the Canadian Bankers Association Web site at www.cba.ca.

Child Welfare League of Canada: Helping vulnerable youth build their financial capability

In March 2010, the Child Welfare League of Canada (CWLC) held its 1^st National Invitational Forum on Building Education Opportunities for Child Welfare Services in Ottawa. The bilingual event reunited 45 key stakeholder organizations. Delegates, from almost every province and territory, represented different groups such as foster parents, social workers, as well as government and community based workers. Young Canadians were also well represented at the Forum, with 10 per cent of the attendees being youth who had lived or had professional experience in child welfare.

During the two day event, participants came together building strong networks and sharing inspiration and valuable knowledge to help identify the next steps for change around financial capability and access to post-secondary education for vulnerable youth. The Forum also featured a roundtable discussion that focused on how CWLC's national project, Building Education Opportunities (BEO), could help agencies develop collaboration with their respective government agencies.

Over the course of the Forum, discussions constantly returned to the underlying theme of youth engagement within sectors such as child welfare and education, and emphasized youth as critical players to increasing financial capability and access to post-secondary education for vulnerable young people in Canada.

Key note speakers and other panellists at the Forum included representatives of the Canada Education Savings Grant Program, the National Youth in Care Network, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the Canadian Center for Financial Literacy, the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education, the Manitoba Securities Commission, Citi Financial, the University of Ottawa's Centre for Research in Community Services, and the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services.

For more information about CLWC's National Project for Building Education Opportunities in Child Welfare Services (BEO), visit www.cwlc.ca/beo.

The Financial Literacy and Education Commission launches new My Money Web site

Last April, the United States' Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) launched its redesigned financial literacy education Web site, www.MyMoney.gov. The new site has enhanced interactive features and utility to provide more resources to individuals seeking information that can inform their personal financial decisions. 

The new site also creates an online point of access to financial information from the 21 Federal agencies, departments and bureaus that comprise the FLEC. Users can find information about how to plan for a host of life events that have financial implications, such as the birth or adoption of a child, home ownership, or retirement.

They can also find information targeted to their personal or professional situation. For instance, the site includes resources for teachers, service members, women, parents, youth, employers, and more. In addition, the site provides money management tools such as a financial savings calculator, worksheets for establishing a household budget and a college preparation checklist.

The Web site was made possible by the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which was established under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. The Commission was tasked to develop a national financial education Web site along with a hotline (1-888-My Money) and a national strategy on financial education. The Commission is coordinated by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Financial Education. For more information you can visit www.MyMoney.gov.