Driving financial empowerment for Black Canadians: A year of progress

On May 16, 2024, Prosper Canada announced a five-year commitment to advancing financial inclusion and empowerment for Black Canadians.

“We have been working to foster financial inclusion and well-being for Canadians with low incomes for many years. However, this commitment marked a pivotal moment - an intentional and sustained effort on our part to address the systemic and institutional barriers that hinder the financial wellbeing of Black Canadians. Over the past year, this journey has deepened our understanding of these challenges and reinforced our dedication to building a truly inclusive financial ecosystem that supports and empowers Black communities” explained Prosper Canada CEO, Liz Mulholland.

Five priority actions

In our commitment, we outlined five priority actions we would take:

1. Developing a multi-year action plan and publicly reporting on our progress
2. Building organizational competence to see and combat anti-Black racism in Canada
3. Fostering deeper, sustained, and trusted relationships with Black-led, Black-serving, and Black-focused (B3) organizations
4. Ensure the services, training, tools and resources that Prosper Canada develops are inclusive of Black Canadians
5. Creating an inclusive National Financial Empowerment Network that welcomes B3 organizations

Our work with Black Canadians draws on lessons we have learned from our collaboration with Indigenous communities across Canada to advance our Reconciliation Commitment:

• Taking time to develop a foundation of trust with the communities we engage with 
• Fostering longer term relationships that are not time-bound by specific projects
• Recognizing that communities often lack capacity for financial help services 
• Investing in community-led processes to co-develop tailored programs and resources

Amplifying existing efforts

In this first year of our commitment, our focus has been on listening to and learning from financial empowerment partner organizations currently serving Black communities and establishing new relationships with Black-led and Black-serving organizations. To this end, we:

• Offered B3 organizations free access to two courses – Financial Empowerment Foundations and Financial Literacy for Facilitators
• Engaged financial empowerment organizations from our national network to better understand how they are currently serving Black Canadians and to explore opportunities for collaboration
• Connected with 15 B3 organizations across Canada – five of which already provide financial empowerment services – to better understand their needs and opportunities to support their work
• Partnered with Taibu Community Health Centre to explore Afrocentric financial empowerment models to address systemic barriers faced by Black communities. This initiative included a literature review, community consultations, and collaboration with professionals in the Black financial empowerment workforce across North America to develop culturally responsive approaches that support financial well-being

Convening and collaboration

In June 2024, we convened financial empowerment organizations, B3 organizations, and other stakeholders to share insights, discuss socio-economic conditions affecting the financial wellbeing of Black Canadians, and gather valuable perspectives and ideas to inform our ongoing work.

Organizational Initiatives

We also established an internal working group to monitor and report annually on progress against our Commitment to Black Canadians and facilitated an all-day, organization-wide, training session on confronting anti-Black racism for Prosper Canada staff. Led by Evenings + Weekends Consulting, this training enhanced our understanding of Black history in Canada and enhanced our capacity to identify and address systemic barriers to equity, inclusion, justice and belonging for Black Canadians.

Federal funding and focus on Black Canadians

In the 2024 federal budget, the Government of Canada committed $60 million over five years to Prosper Canada to expand free, community-delivered financial help services for struggling Canadians. In this initiative, Prosper Canada will be working to expand services to Black Canadians, one of three priority populations identified as currently underserved when it comes to trustworthy and affordable financial help.  
Reflection and next steps

In our first year, we have focused on listening, learning and building new relationships. We are more aware of the complexity and depth of systemic barriers faced by Black Canadians and excited to work with longstanding and new partners to expand financial inclusion and empowerment efforts with, and for, Black Canadians. Over the next year, we will:

• Engage staff, partners, and grantees to collaboratively co-design a multi-year action plan
• Expand our partnerships and adapt our resources to better meet the needs of Black Canadians
• Continue working to foster trust and co-create solutions with B3 organizations.

While this effort is still in its early stages and much work lies ahead, we are energized by the relationships we are building, the insights we are gathering, and the collective effort toward a more equitable future. Together, we are creating pathways to financial inclusion that are accessible, inclusive, and impactful for all Canadians.