Poverty Isn’t Just about Not Having Enough Money
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of November as Financial Literacy Month in Canada. Yet, despite a decade of campaigning to help Canadians learn how to manage their finances, it is still estimated that there are 2.2 million of us who don’t have a bank account: a reality for many CUPS clients.
While CUPS offers crisis support, housing subsidies and other economic support services for Calgarians, we know that poverty isn’t just about not having enough money or a bank account. It goes hand in hand with hunger, inadequate housing, poor physical and mental health, discrimination and social exclusion.
It’s a challenge that is integrated into many facets of life and therefore requires an integrated care approach to help solve.
No one-size-fits-all solution
You’ve heard it before at CUPS: there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for the challenges of poverty and trauma, and the same can be said when approaching financial literacy for our clients. Financial education and delivery work best when adapted to specific client’s needs and considers factors such as:
Demographics (age, gender, marital status)
Education
Literacy levels
Employment status and income level
Life stage and events
What’s more, clients are also likely to have a range of learning styles (e.g. visual, auditory, tactile) and preferred learning formats (e.g. workshops or one-on-one coaching).
Financial education is most effective when it meets participants where they are at in their financial lives and tailors information and education to their needs.
How finances fit into Integrated care
When a client engages with CUPS, they are welcomed by a multidisciplinary team of care-coordinators, clinicians, specialists, educators and counsellors and engage with our external partners to create a custom care plan that is suited specifically for the complex needs of that person’s story.
We walk them through the Resiliency Tool, which, in addition to covering one’s social-emotional, health and developmental circumstances, asks clients about their financial circumstances. The tool includes the following economic subdomains:
housing and living conditions
income and finances
literacy, education, job skills and training
food access and nutrition
Once we have a good sense of a client’s circumstance, we can create and deliver a customized, integrated care plan. In this way, we most effectively help them from a state of crisis toward stability and self-sufficiency.
Learn more about CUPS’ economic support services for vulnerable Calgarians, including:
Crisis Intervention Fund: offering short-term financial support to ensure the client is able to maintain housing stability
Graduated Rent Program: supporting clients navigate an often complex system and developing solutions to remain housed
Tax Clinics: helping clients receive valuable tax refunds and related government benefits
Interested in getting involved at CUPS? Click here.