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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The NWT Literacy Council is about halfway through its Financial Literacy Workshop program, which kicked off in October.

Katie Randall who works in youth and adult services for the the NWT Literacy Council teaches a class in Ndilo during a financial literacy workshop. - photo courtesy of the NWT Literacy Council

Katie Randall and Aggie Brockman are co-facilitators of the program which visits communities around the territory to share information and get people talking about money.

"I think one of the biggest things that has come out of it is that there's a lot of information and a lot of knowledge within the groups themselves, but because money is something we're all told not to talk about and that we're supposed to keep private, we don't often know that our neighbour is really good at filing taxes or someone else has had experience with credit and they could teach you about it," said Randall. "That's been a big part of the workshop, just starting a conversation within the group and seeing where the knowledge lies."

Randall and Brockman were trained in February 2012 and received the TD Financial Literacy grant a few months later.

Since commencing the free workshops in October, the pair have held eight out of a possible 15 workshops.

One such workshop was held in conjunction with an academic upgrade and personal development course held by Aurora College in Ndilo.

The community adult educator for Ndilo, Alison Barr, now program head for Tlicho and Yellowknife regions for Aurora College, said at the time participants were giving positive feedback and particularly enjoyed preparing budgets and exploring budget templates offered through the workshop.

"I think the value is that it gets people thinking and more conscientious about income and gaining useful skills around income," she said.

"It also includes information about online and telephone banking. Most of the younger generations are adept at all of that because we will have people who feel like they need to go to the bank for everything."

Randall and Brockman will bring the necessary resources and cover their airfare into the community.

"All we need is a host who is interested and can get people to come," said Randall.

Before arriving in the host community, they send ahead a survey to learn what people know and are interested in learning about.

Once there, the workshops require a two-day commitment, but they often add evening sessions for other groups in town who might be interested, such as parent or youth groups.

"One of the main reasons why we started the project was because people in the more remote communities have less access to the information," Randall said. "If there isn't a bank to go ask questions at, then it's harder to get those questions answered."

She said the most common questions are about different tools offered at banks, how parents can save money for their children, and how compound interest works.

"(Interest) is kind of a confusing topic because it makes our savings grow and, unfortunately, makes our debts grow even faster."

Barr said one of the important topics the workshop covered was how mortgages work.

"Homeownership is something that everyone wants, but if you don't really understand how it works or what it involves, then it might never become a reality. It gets people thinking about that."

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