Why Financial Literacy Month matters

Financial Literacy is a basic need for every Canadian. This November marks the fifth annual Financial Literacy Month (FLM) in Canada. FLM aims to encourage organizations from all sectors to promote financial literacy for Canadians of all ages. 

On Monday, November 2nd, Canada’s Financial Literacy Leader Jane Rooney launched this year’s FLM at the ABLE Financial Empowerment Conference in front of 300+ financial empowerment stakeholders from across Canada. This year, Rooney invites organizations from the private, public and non-profit sectors to mobilize in support of Canada’s National Strategy for Financial Literacy – Count me in, Canada. Launched in June 2015, Count me in, Canada sets out three goals to help Canadians:

• Manage money and debt wisely
• Plan and save for the future
• Prevent and protect against fraud and financial abuse.

Organizations across the country are sharing resources, hosting workshops, seminars and other events to help Canadians learn how to manage their personal finances successfully. We encourage you to search the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s (FCAC) Financial Literacy Database, which stores over 1,000 resources and over 500 FLM events. By contributing to the database, organizations are helping to create an effective one-stop source for all matters financial literacy related so if you have resources and events to share, be sure to submit them using the resource database input tool.

Other financial literacy awareness initiatives taking place during the month of November are Credit Education Week (November 9-13) and Education Savings Week (November 16-22).

Credit Education Week Canada is part of a national effort to raise financial literacy awareness and the importance of proper credit education. This year’s theme is “Cheap versus Frugal,” with a focus on helping Canadians successfully reach their financial goals.

Originally piloted in November 2014, Education Savings Week is an opportunity to:

• increase public awareness of the importance of education savings, and the benefits of RESPs, government financial incentives, and other benefits;
• encourage Canadians to save for their children’s education using RESPs; and
• bring attention to, and increase understanding of the mix of supports available to help Canadians finance post-secondary education for their children. 

This year, there are a dozen organizations across Canada participating in Education Savings Week. These range from banking institutions, to social service agencies and universities.

Chatham-Kent, SmartSAVER, Momentum, Career Trek, Niagara Region, ABC Life Literacy and Vancouver Island University (Nanaimo, BC) are just a few of the organizations raising awareness of RESPS and the CLB this month.

Follow the hashtag #EduSaveWeek to learn more from ESW partner organizations. You can join the conversation to help raise awareness about the importance of financial literacy by using the hashtags #FLM2015 and #CountMeInCA to share information on social media.