Finance classes to give young people best chance

Area:

West Midlands

Programme:

Reaching Communities

Release date:

16 10 2012

Teaching financial literacy to young people in Birmingham to help them avoid hitting a debt crisis is one of eight West Midlands initiatives securing Lottery funding today.

Best Chances, sharing in a £1.5m pot from Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities funding programme, will work in schools in Birmingham to educate young people in making informed financial decisions. Other projects receiving grants today are in Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Sandwell and Coventry.

Best Chances will use £155,000 to introduce the Investing in the Future scheme to three schools in south west Birmingham. Group sessions will be held covering key financial issues such as credit, debt, overdrafts and lifestyle choices. Sessions will be led by young graduates, bank managers, business leaders and local members of the Chamber of Commerce and Institute of Directors. Some young people will be trained as financial literacy champions so they can then in-turn deliver sessions to their peers.

Bernie Smith, a former Birmingham head teacher, founded Best Chances with his colleague Maureen Hunt to give young people the best chances in life.

He said: “In the current economic crisis the problems associated with long term debt and dependency on credit to survive, generational worklessness, debt, unemployment and financial literacy are significant.

“They are even more acute for young people who will struggle to obtain or maintain jobs and become trapped by debt unless they are educated in how to better understand the nature of borrowing and the long-term impact financial choices can make.

“Much like having the skills of basic literacy, financial literacy will open up avenues many children and young people have closed to them at the moment.  Knowing about finance can be fun and enlightening, and it has to be essential in the current economic crisis we are witnessing today.”

Young people themselves have been involved in the development of the Investing in the Future project through discussions in schools. They were keen to include another element to the project - a mobile advice service, or cash-car - which will regularly visit key locations to offer expert advice to the wider community. It will include visits to community groups and voluntary organisations.

Also operating in Birmingham, is The Edge Partnership of Schools, awarded £225,000. Based on successful pilot work, this project will be in five local high schools, with the aims of improving the confidence, community involvement and leadership skills of disadvantaged and vulnerable young people. Local business leaders will also help deliver practical coaching.

Other projects securing funding today include Your Ideas Ltd, awarded £189,898 to deliver specialist support services to young people aged 15 - 25 years old with autism spectrum disorder living in Redditch. The project will deliver weekly friendship groups with an emphasis on peer support. Social trips and outings will take place. Young people will develop life skills to be able to live independently, such as budgeting skills, interpersonal skills, resilience to cope within social environments and interaction in the community.

And Community Together CIC receives £142,791 to open community cafes in Glascote, Stonydelph and Amington in the Tamworth area that will serve low cost refreshments, and hold a range of activities to tackle issues including unhealthy lifestyles, youth unemployment and social exclusion. There will be a job club, healthy eating and other advice sessions, and activities including crafts, quizzes and bingo.

John Taylor, Big Lottery Fund Head of the West Midlands region, said: “Giving young people the best chances to succeed in life is critical for them, their families and their community. I strongly believe today’s projects working with young people are going to have a significant impact on young lives and will ultimately pave the way for them to build positive futures. All of today’s projects are doing phenomenal work in improving life for people and communities in need.”

For a full list of projects receiving funding today, please see the table below.

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888

Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk

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Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £4.4bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

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