Project Overview
A complete guide for financial literacy and capability
Money and Youth now has over 740,000 copies in circulation to homes and schools across Canada. Money and Youth serves as a “Guide to Financial Literacy” for youth ages 14 and up – but also serves as a primer for adults, especially parents and teachers who often assume responsibilities for helping children improve their financial capability.
Money and Youth starts with an exploration of one’s values and covers how to make good decisions – and be aware of those who will try to influence decisions and how they can go about doing so. The book then proceeds through a learning framework looking at the challenges and opportunities of first getting money and then spending, saving, borrowing, and protecting money and the things we acquire in life that are important to us.
The Money and Youth web site is set up in a modular format enabling users to select topics of interest. Teacher and Parent Guides are provided for each module.
Highlights
As a resource for youth, teachers, parents, and those generally interested in improving financial capability, Money and Youth:- Provides a complete “Guide to Financial Literacy” covering pretty well all of relevant financial topics;
- Is written in clear-language that is easy to understand and explains key terminology;
- Is designed to apply an inquiring approach to learning challenging the user to engage in self-reflection and think about factors affecting their financial decisions and actions;
- Provides easy to user Teacher and Parent Guides to facilitate learning and enable enjoyable engagement with youth as youth play an active and participatory role in the learning activities;
- Through use and experience, is useful for user groups ranging from age 15 and older.
Goals
- Provide a resource to support financial education in schools throughout Canada;
- Provide a resource to help parents improve their own financial capability as they work to improve that of their children;
- Provide resource material online in a modular format to enable users to select topics of interest and that are relevant to their purposes;
- Provide a wide variety of “prompts” throughout the resource encouraging users to “Thinkabout,” “How About You,” “Discuss,” and “Take Action, Take Control” to help users personalize their learning and consider how the content is relevant to their lives;
- Provide an overall learning framework as a “guide to financial literacy” that can be used as a reference by others developing curriculum, resources, and programs to help improve financial capability.
Outcomes
- Financial capability throughout Canada is improved over time;
- Financial education increases and improves in schools across Canada;
- Youth, and others, appreciate the importance of staying in control of one’s financial affairs and how doing so can impact stress and happiness over the course of one’s life;
- Canadians are better prepared to undertake financial decisions and actions with confidence and competence.