A recently launched program is helping low income individuals in Windsor-Essex.
The Financial Literacy Independence Program, or F.L.I.P. for short, is offered through the John Howard Society of Windsor-Essex County (JHSW), in partnership with the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor.
The free program is designed to help anyone over the age of 18 who identifies as low income by encouraging them to learn more about budgeting, building credit, and how to learn positive financial behaviours.
JHSW was one of the recipients of a contribution from Government of Canada's Social Development Partnerships Program, with funding awarded back in the spring of 2022 to develop a program to meet the financial needs of the community.
Jamie Kennedy, a caseworker for the program at the JHSW, says they're currently working through their first year.
"So we're in our second cohort, we've had about eight people graduate from the program so far. So it's an eight week program, and each week is about an hour long class. And we cover everything from setting financial goals, to budgeting, to debt and fraud," she said.
The program is in a group setting, with the option of one-on-one meetings to help address specific needs of each group member.
Caseworkers will work closely with each participant to help build individualized budgets, assist in setting up bank accounts, and provide them the skill-set to alleviate financial burden.
Kennedy says the program deals with real-life money issues that everyone faces, and they're pretty lenient when it comes to what qualifies as low income.
"We deal with a lot of people that are on Ontario Disability Support Program or Ontario Works, just looking to kind of allow their dollar to stretch a little bit further. We kind of help them find different programs like utility benefits and partnerships that they can lean on in order to get some extra help."
F.L.I.P has seen great success in the first two cohorts, according to Kennedy, and they're looking to benefit many more people in the community.
She says they're hoping to get 12 people for each cohort, but they can go above that if the interest is there.
"If we keep the groups a little bit smaller, we're able to give that extra help a little bit better than having a huge group," Kennedy continued. "It's not really a classroom type of scenario, so we just have it at our community agency at 275 Oak Street, we have a board room there that we facilitate."
At the end of the program there's a wrap up week where participants get their certificate for completion, and Kennedy says there's options for follow ups after the fact as well.
Any eligible low income individuals looking to get involved can contact the John Howard Society by calling 519-252-3461 or find more information online.