The Community Chest funds a financial education programme run by St. James' Settlement
The Community Chest has been an important channel of funding for projects of social service agencies. The Community Chest recognises the relevance of financial literacy in improving the financial and overall well-being of many social service targets and hence invited submission of project proposals with emphasis on financial literacy since 2018.
In 2018/2019, The Community Chest allocated approximately HK$5 million to support St. James' Settlement in starting the Future Explorer – Youth Career Development Programme (Future Explorer). A three year project targeting at diploma / sub-degree students and senior secondary students, the Future Explorer adopts the theories of life-design counselling and elements from the Hong Kong Financial Competency Framework to help youth make a sustainable career and living. The programme includes personality dimension test, team building workshop, understanding of most update employment market, employability skill exposure and training, life goal setting, financial literacy workshop and design of social project. The training contents are richly embedded with financial literacy elements.
It is important that a programme not only imparts knowledge to the participants, but also creates impact on their attitude and behaviours. It is expected that the Future Explorer will create impacts on the participants in these three areas:
Knowledge and skills
- Saving and investment
- Spending and credit
- Consumer rights and responsibilities
- Financial planning
- Protection and risks
Attitude
- Resist unplanned purchasing temptation
- Actively manage one's future wealth
- Avoid borrowing and minimize debt
- Be cautious when purchasing financial products
Behaviours
- Minimize spending and spend within one's budget
- Calculate one's personal wealth regularly
- Use electronic tools to track income/spending on a regular basis
- Maintain a sufficient money reserve for unexpected contingency
The Community Chest encourages member agencies to consider including financial literacy elements, where possible, in their future project proposals. The Community Chest upcoming proposal submission period for their member agencies is expected to be July-September 2019.
The IFEC also hopes to see more philanthropists and charitable foundations support social projects that emphasise or encompass financial literacy in the project contents.
