Can you help?

MommaCC

I work with groups of 16-18 year olds, most of whom left the education system at year 11 or earlier and have no qualifications, poor social skills and have not been blessed with a supportive upbringing.

Our job is to address their basic skills & help them to gain a qualification, give them experience of the world of work and assist with personal and social development.

Most of our young people have no idea how to budget and manage money and I have been searching the internet, without any luck, for an organisation who visit charity free of charge to give presentations/seminars on this.

Does anyone know of an organisation that will do this?

Savvy_Sue

Have you thought of applying to the MSE Charity Fund for a grant towards the costs of doing this yourselves? Or, if you can find a local group who will do this but charge, or require expenses paying, to help you fund those costs?

fengirl_2

Where are you based, Momma?

MommaCC

Thats great, thanks Sue

Fengirl, we're in Greater London (East)

ahai1

You should contact your local credit union. If they can't help then they may know someone who can. Which borough are you in? The reason I ask is that some services are in one borough but you can't get them in another one. I am also in East London in Tower Hamlets.

foreign_correspondent

Hello, I dont know of any organisations but I do have some experience which may be useful - I used to deliver informal education a similar provision, several years ago. Budgeting was a major difficulty for many of these young people, due to lack of knowledge and numeracy problems they were very vulnerable to dodgy loans etc.

To address this- we used to do a lot of practical and theoretical tasks, like getting the free papes and asking them all to choose their ideal first car, under £500 or under £1000 perhaps, the ring round for insurance quotes, look at the price of tax, MOT etc and get them to work out the monthly cost of owning the car for a year - good for numeracy and researching skills too!

We also looked at the difference between paying outright and paying using a loan or credit agreement. Young people are often targeted by certain loan compnaies (especially one starting with a p!) - it is worth tryng to get info on ther rates and applying this to a real life situation - eg. You borrow £200 for your new TV, or £100 for christmas presents, how much do you pay back per week? How much do you pay back in total? What happens if you can't pay? (young people often have a wealth of experience of money problems from their backgrounds and it can be useful for them to discuss their experiences) What are the alternatives to this?

We also used to do challenges where we split them into teams and let them cook and shop and see who could produce the best/ cheapest meal for x number of people (with help of course - maybe one worker allocated to each team, and some recipe ideas) - anything from bangers, mash and beans to Pasta dishes and homemade pizza - I thnk we stipulated it must contain ome carbs, some protein and some fruit or veg!

If you would like any more ideas then please PM me - I now teach students who work with young people and would happily come and offer some support but I am in the midlands!

fengirl_2

Your local CAB may have someone who could do this - but I expect they would want paying.