Youth Finance Academy

Background We consider that COVID-19 exposed the existing and persisting health, social and economic inequalities in our societies and had the heaviest impact on the lives of people living in deprivation or facing difficult socio-economic circumstances. The constant threat of financial crisis has made it crucial to address the need for financial literacy educational programs. Financial literacy rates vary across the European Union: in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden 65% of adults are financially literate. In Bulgaria and Cyprus, only 35% of adults, while in Romania 22%. The involvement of youth workers, educators and educational leaders as the frontline staff is essential to help young people and young entrepreneurs build financial literacy - money knowledge, skills, and habits at key transitional moments. We believe that today’s youth should become empowered economic citizens, capable of understanding the importance of saving, to be equipped with the skills to be employed and create their own livelihoods. We want young people to learn to manage their money wisely, because by empowering youth, we can help them transfer their knowledge to their families and to entire communities. Objectives The main aim of the 8 organizations was to design during the project “Youth Finance Academy” a collection of 3 financial education tools for Youth NGOs to be used by these to equip young people and young entrepreneurs with the know-how and key-competences necessary to achieve a high-quality financial literacy throughout two years. The objectives were to create a cross-sectoral network of financial experts, to train youth workers to become financial educators in 8 local communities through 1 short-term staff training event and to design high-quality financial education learning environments that can improve the financial literacy of aprox 238 young people and 181 young entrepreneurs involved in 2 blended mobilities and 16 local workshops. Implementation The main activities implemented were the following: 1. KOM in February 2021 in a hybrid way (organized by Monomyths+Civitas) 2. 2nd TPM (online) – June 2021 3. 3rd TPM (Bucharest) – February 2022 - physical with all the partners 4. Hackathon organized in parallel with the 3rd TPM organized in Bucharest at AHA Youth Center. (February 2022) 5. 1st LTTA organized in Lithuania in May-June 2022 (C1 Short-term joint staff training events) 6. 2nd LTTA organized in Bulgaria in October 2022 (C2 Blended mobility of young people) 7. 4rd TPM (Athens) Evaluation meeting- physical with all the partners 8. Multiplier event (Greece) Youth Financial Education Forum (YFEF) - 1st Edition 9. 3nd LTTA organized in Denmark in December 2022 (C3 Blended mobility of young people) 10. Multiplier Events Financial education camp for young people and Financial education seminar with stakeholders Achievements The concrete outputs of the Youth Finance Academy project are: 1.IO1 - Financial education mind-maps – research divided in 2 phases: 1: “Financial Well-being of the Z Generation” an online survey was applied in all seven countries among youth and youth entrepreneurs by the researchers. The results were translated into 7 national reports and 1 Joint report in English with the summary and key-data extracted from the national reports. 2: Best cases analyze - the researchers analyzed the best practice cases - interventions, policies, programs designed by the public/private/not-for-profit sector on financial education topics which were combined in 1 manual with a selection of European and national “financial education” best practice cases (programs, policies, benefits, environmental support) designed to support the development of financial literacy among YP/YW/YE. The information was collected in the digital mind-maps 2.IO2- YFA training toolbox contains M1: Finance education essentials for YP and M2: Finance education essentials for YE 3.IO3- YFA decision game- aims to require players to make decisions about income, expenses, and savings and to explore big questions about the economy and world of finance.