Blog

In a recent interview with Danielle Thibaudeau from the Commissioner of Social Services’s Office at The Regional Municipality of Durham, Prosper Canada delved into the world of financial empowerment and the unique challenges faced by low-income Canadians. Danielle, Policy Advisor in the Strategic Partnerships and Priority Teams within the Social Services Department Commissioner's Office, shared her insights into the importance of financial resources, collaborations with non-profits like Prosper Canada, and the impact of the Making the Most of Your Money resource. The resource is a free online course designed to help individuals and families living with low income learn about money in an accessible way. It was developed by Prosper Canada with the generous financial support from Ontario Securities Commission and has been implemented by the Region of Durham to facilitate financial education within its community.

After 18 years as the leader of Community Financial Counselling Services (CFCS) in Winnipeg, Executive Director John Silver, is retiring from a career of outstanding service to the community.

An unwavering force for good, John has led the CFCS team with courage, empathy, determination, and integrity. Under John’s visionary leadership, CFCS enhanced and expanded a range of financial empowerment programs designed to reduce poverty and increase the financial capacity of all Manitobans, all longstanding issues of equity that were only exacerbated during the pandemic.
 

Since October 2018, the Financial Empowerment Network of Nova Scotia (FENNS) has worked to raise the levels of financial empowerment and financial literacy across Nova Scotia. Representing a broad spectrum of public, private and non-profit sector groups, we bring together organizations working to increase financial understanding with organizations whose work is directly affected by that lack of understanding. 

In SEDI’s recent submission to the Ontario government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy consultation, we strongly encouraged the government to take advantage of a new community approach to reducing poverty called Financial Empowerment.

The Great Recession of 2008 detonated an explosion of interest in financial literacy in most industrialized countries, including Canada. However, the force of the explosion in our country, at least at the federal level, has waned considerably since then.