For a lot of younger individuals, monetary independence can really feel like a distant aim, overshadowed by challenges in training, employment, and financial alternative.
However for a bunch of vibrant, keen individuals from SOS Youngsters’s Village in Jamaica, that aim grew to become just a little extra tangible because of a monetary literacy workshop hosted on the Scotiabank Company Studying Centre. The session, a part of the 2025 YouthRISE initiative supported by Scotiabank’s ScotiaRISE programme, was designed to equip these younger individuals, aged 15 to 23, with the important instruments to navigate their monetary future with confidence.
Led by Scotiabank representatives Narda Miller, Enterprise Banking Officer and Narada Warner, Enterprise Banking Growth Officer, the workshop coated key matters corresponding to budgeting, expense administration, debt, insurance coverage, financial savings, funding, and even retirement planning. However it wasn’t nearly idea—the session introduced monetary literacy to life by means of interactive actions, together with the ‘Cash Recreation’ and ‘Penny for Your Ideas’ group discussions, the place individuals might instantly apply their newfound data.
Members of the SOS Youngsters’s Villages Jamaica staff, youth individuals from SOS Youngsters’s Villages Stony Hill, and Scotiabank representatives collect for a commemorative photograph.
“Monetary literacy is prime to non-public success as a result of data is energy,” stated Yanique Forbes-Patrick, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications, Scotiabank. “We wish to be certain that younger individuals have entry to the most effective info and instruments to make knowledgeable monetary selections. By way of initiatives like YouthRISE, we’re instructing essential expertise and investing in the way forward for Jamaica’s youth, giving them the boldness to construct a safe monetary future.”
YouthRISE is greater than only a workshop—it’s a three-year initiative spearheaded by SOS Youngsters’s Villages Canada and funded by Scotiabank’s ScotiaRISE programme. With a CAD$950,000 (J$106 million) funding, the programme is anticipated to achieve practically 800 youth in Jamaica and Mexico, addressing essential boundaries to training, employment, and financial participation.
“The aim is to not solely have interaction younger individuals inside our villages but in addition prolong these alternatives to the broader group,” defined Lanoy Crumbie-Barrett, Programme Growth Advisor at SOS Youngsters’s Villages in Jamaica. “We’re targeted on three main areas: training, employability, and group growth. Monetary literacy is a vital a part of that as a result of, with out it, many younger individuals wrestle to transition efficiently into maturity.”
Crumbie-Barrett underscored the real-life implications of those workshops. “Too usually, younger individuals see cash merely as one thing to be spent. We would like them to know that cash is a software for constructing generational wealth. A easy $50 observe is a part of an even bigger plan—it’s about considering in a different way and seeing cash as a useful resource for long-term stability.”
For Anthonio, who desires of turning into a sports activities journalist or communications officer, the workshop was a revelation. “Debt administration stood out essentially the most to me,” he shared. “I by no means knew there was such a factor nearly as good debt and unhealthy debt, and now I perceive how one can handle it in each the brief and long run. Lots of people don’t get alternatives like this to enhance their monetary literacy, so I’m actually grateful.”
He expressed his appreciation for Scotiabank’s funding in younger individuals like him.“It’s nice to see a monetary establishment taking the time, vitality, and sources to speculate sooner or later era. This data gained’t go to waste—you’ll see the affect of those workshops within the years to come back.”
Recognising the necessity for continued studying past a single session, Sean Patrick, Fund Growth and Communication Advisor at SOS Youngsters’s Villages Jamaica, launched a monetary literacy workbook developed to information individuals by means of important cash administration expertise. This booklet is designed to assist them perceive their monetary character, finances elements, and how one can set monetary objectives. Extra than simply offering info, the booklet affords an area for reflection, progress monitoring, and making actual adjustments.
By way of initiatives like YouthRISE, Scotiabank and SOS Youngsters’s Villages are doing greater than providing a crash course in monetary literacy—they’re altering the trajectory of younger lives. By equipping Jamaica’s youth with the talents to make sound monetary selections, they’re serving to to create a era of empowered, unbiased, and financially savvy people able to tackle the world.
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