Community Links will be embedding financial capability into three existing programmes, supporting young people and unemployed BAME women.

 

Projects across the UK, including Community Links will receive new funding from the Money Advice Service, helping tens of thousands of people manage their money better.

Today, the Money Advice Service announced funding for 26 projects, with more to follow in the coming months. The projects, which cover every region of the UK, are being funded from the Money Advice Service’s new £7m What Works Fund. Funded projects will reach thousands of people – from younger people in school, to students and from working age adults to those in retirement.

Community Links will provide financial capability in a holistic and integrated model

Our aim is to embed financial capability support into three of our core projects:

  1. Talent Match London: works with young people facing the biggest barriers to securing work, training or further education opportunities and supports them into positive destinations. It is an innovative youth-led model that provides a mixture of personalised 1-2-1 support, peer support and group work to help young people achieve fulfilling careers. Young people can be supported for up to two years and the programme is highly flexible and driven by young people themselves.
  2. Future Links: is a 10 week employability programme supporting NEET young people into work, training or further education. Activities include CV preparation, apprenticeship/job search and interview techniques.
  3. Building Better Opportunities: A new programme to support unemployed BAME women into work through a mixture of group sessions and 1-2-1 support over a period of 6-8 weeks. The programme is designed to be flexible and adaptable to individuals, as such we would expect some to engage with the programme for much longer.

We know that levels of financial capability remain stubbornly low – four out of ten adults are not in control of their finances and around 16.8 million working age people have less than £100 in savings.

However, very little evidence currently exists on the best way to address this issue. That is why the What Works Fund aims to build evidence and to establish the interventions which best help people to manage their money. Ultimately, the aim is to scale up the most effective projects in order to improve the levels of financial capability of millions of people across the UK.

Arvinda Gohil, Chief Executive of Community Links, said:

 “Helping individuals to improve their overall circumstances, as well as breaking cycles of debt, is what Community Links responds to daily. We are delighted to be able to work with the Money Advice Service in advancing the knowledge and understanding of what works well in improving people’s financial capability.”

“This funding will allow us to further integrate our early action model of preventing problems from arising by embedding financial capability support into our existing services for young people and unemployed BAME women. We hope that results from this work will help to re-design more targeted and efficient money management interventions across the UK.”

Caroline Rookes, Chief Executive for the Money Advice Service said: “There is an urgent need to help people gain the skills and confidence they need to make good decisions about their money day to day. The insights from these projects will be vital, helping organisations to channel their efforts in the right places and to fund and deliver interventions that we know make a real difference. A collective approach is needed to really tackle the issues that underpin low financial capability in the UK.”

David Haigh, Director of Financial Capability at the Money Advice Service comments: “We know that millions of people across the country are one unexpected bill away from seeing their finances spiral out of control – and for those who are already vulnerable, that risk is exacerbated. We want to build evidence on how we can get these people to engage with their financial situation and avoid them ending up in problem debt or with other financial difficulties.”

More information

  • Read the full press release about the MAS What Works Fund and other projects they are funding across the UK

Contact:
Michelle Clark, Communications Officer
Tel: 0207 473 9658
Email: Michelle.Clark@Community-Links.org

Original source – linksUK

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