Empowering the Youth through Financial Literacy

This project aimed to strengthen the employability of young people by supporting them to acquire & develop competencies & skills in financial literacy to downplay the effects of the COVID-19 crisi...

Conceiving financial literacy as a key to ensuring economic access, growth, & empowerment of disadvantaged communities, this project had two main objectives: (1) increase the financial literacy of youth workers directly working with disadvantaged youngsters, & (2) increase social&labor market inclusion and entrepreneurial skills of disadvantaged young people by boosting their competencies & skills on financial literacy through non-formal education tools & methodologies. Moreover, the project had further specific objectives: (1) better quality recognition of youth work by improving the financial literacy of youth workers & its integration into youth work practices. (2) develop & share effective methods to help youth workers in reaching out to disadvantaged young people through financial literacy activities. - Increase general societal literacy & awareness of financial concepts as crucial for employment creation & life-long upskilling. - Foster cross-sectoral cooperation to allow greater synergies across different stakeholders & sectors to ensure the empowerment & inclusion of young people. - Promote inclusive growth & employment opportunities.

The project, to ensure the effective achievement of the objectives & expected results, was structured into 2 main types of activities: (1) main activities, and (2) management activities. When it comes to the main activities of the project: 1. Activities for the development of results, through which we achieved the development of four main deliverables: (a) Practical guide on Financial Literacy, (b)Toolkit for youth workers on "Financial Literacy through non-formal education tools & activities"; (c) A policy briefing on new successful ways to empower the youth through financial literacy, & (d) a MOOC "Financial Literacy". Through these activities, the project succeeded in the achievement of the 5 specific objectives mentioned in the previous question, and in parallel, with the two main objectives of the project. 2. Secondly, we had the training activities. Throughout the project, we conducted two LTT activities, one in Georgia for youth workers, and one in Poland for disadvantaged young people. With these two activities, we aimed and achieved to: increase youth workers' professional competencies through deep & informed training on financial literacy; increase knowledge & practice on non-formal innovative activities, tools & methodologies to empower disadvantaged youngsters on financial literacy; enhance motivation&satisfaction in youth workers' daily work; achieve a better understanding of the different interconnections that non-formal education can establish with formal education sector as well as other cross-sectoral sectors; increase the motivation to work & operate transnational; and potentiate youngsters' social & labor market inclusion&entrepreneurial skills disadvantaged young people by boosting their competencies & skills on financial literacy; enhance the development of youngsters' entrepreneurial mindset and increased their entrepreneurial skills and competencies; reinforce youngster's feeling of social responsibility linked to the entrepreneurial mindset and skills is aiming at providing entrepreneurial solutions to tackle social and economic challenges; boost youngster's motivation to continue with their professional formation and education after the finalization of the project; increase youngster's self-empowerment, self-motivation&self-esteem&motivation for engagement within the structures of their youth organizations; and foster improvement of participant's foreign language. 3. Finally, the last part of the training activities was the dissemination event of the project. Through the Multiplier Event that was organized in Belgium, the Consortium further succeeded in the achievement of the specific and general objectives of the project. Concluding, on the other hand, the project was structured in management activities. All different activities performed under the project management & implementation tasks (which are further detailed in the corresponding section of project management in this report), were oriented to the smooth & successful implementation of all main & other complementary activities, ensuring the professionalization of standards & procedures. In concrete, through the 5 TPMs, the Consortium aimed to promote proper management & execution of the project activities, thus putting the focus into suitable preparation as well as in monitoring & evaluating the processes. Finally, the evaluation of exploitation & sustainability of project results was essential to assess the achievement of those positive impacts that required at least 6 month framework to produce accountable and identifiable impacts.

As advanced in the previous questions, this project had 4 specific deliverables, 2 LTTs, and one Multiplier Event that the Consortium had as the main outputs and results of the project. However, further details can be mentioned to comprehend the spill-over outputs and positive results that had the main deliverables as the common ground. When it comes to the quantitative results: - We implemented 2 LTT activities with the main aims of: a) increasing youth workers' professional skills & competencies in financial literacy; b)increasing youth worker's competencies & practice to better engage disadvantaged youth groups; (c) increasing social&labor market inclusion&entrepreneurial skills of disadvantaged young people by boosting their competencies&skills on financial literacy, d)testing&improving the results of the results1&2 as well as better preparing the development of results 3&4. - After the implementation of the LTTs, we also developed two reports of efforts & results derived from C1 & C2, including the feedback & improvements report regarding the content of results 1 & 2, as a result of the testing phase implemented through the LTTs C1 & C2. - The Consortium also implemented 5 TPMs, with the production of their respective agendas & minutes. - In parallel, as a closing of the project, we had the Multiplier Event in Belgium. Hence, as a quantitative result, we have the implementation of this exploitation activity where we reached 77 people online and 42 in person. - From the ME, we also have the reports of efforts & results, main insights and feedback after the session, and the list of networking contacts achieved during and after its implementation. - Subject to the GDPR, the Consortium also has a list of associate partners, contacts & stakeholders developed for communication & dissemination purposes. - Finally, we also developed a report of efforts & results derived from the development of deliverables 1, 2, 3, & 4. Regarding the qualitative results, the Consortium noted: - Increased financial literacy of youth workers directly working with disadvantaged youngsters (youth workers who participated in our LTTs, who benefited from our deliverables, or other connections with the project). - Increased capacity of youth organizations to operate transnationally through greater experience in EU project management. - Increased entrepreneurial mindset, skills&competencies among disadvantaged youngsters' (who participated in the LTTs or who are connected with youth workers who participated or who benefited from our project results). - Increased motivation of disadvantaged youngsters for engagement within the structures of their youth organizations & for continuing with their training after the project life - Better preparation of youth workers to reach out to disadvantaged young people through financial literacy activities. - Improvement of foreign language competencies (English) of both youth workers & disadvantaged youngsters. - Increase of general society literacy & awareness of financial concepts as crucial for employment creation & life-long upskilling through a) the MOOC and b) new cross-sectoral synergies & cooperation. - Effective empowerment of youth workers and youngsters involved in the project of their self-confidence, motivation & technical skills to better tackle the negative economic effects of COVID-10.