Financial ABC - managing the household budget for youth threatened by financial exclusion – the 2nd edition
The main objective of the second edition of the project is to increase the level of knowledge of persons from youth educational centres (Młodzieżowe Ośrodki Wychowawcze- MOWs and Młodzieżowe Osrodki Socjoterapeutyczne - MOSs) and youngsters from orphanages about the management of the household budget. This goal will be achieved by organizing 24 workshops in the Mazowieckie, Opolskie and Wielkopolskie Voivodships. About 240 people will take part in the workshops.
Scientific research shows that learning financial habits is connected with socialisation, which includes absorption of knowledge, concepts, skills, behaviours, opinions, attitudes, values and cognitive representations related to the economy by a young person. During socialization, a young person develops the ability to deal with budget. These skills are needed in everyday life. Unfortunately, the orphanages and youth educational centres children, often do not have the opportunity to learn good financial habits by watching their closest friends and family or by trainings (the youth educational centres are closed centres). In the natural environment, children watch their parents in everyday situations, e.g. during shopping, management of the household budget, planning expenses, etc.
Orphanages and youth educational centres do not have similar tools to prepare children and young people to learn good financial habits. The authors of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) report (2015) observed that children from orphanages after leaving the institutions often have problems with the simplest tasks like shopping or money management. The pupils of orphanages are also more exposed to homelessness, unemployment and conflicts with the law. NIK established that in the years 2010-2011, every fourth person out of thousands of people whose cases were analysed used social assistance services. On the other hand, out of over 300 persons who reached the age of majority in 2012, every third person registered in the labour office and every sixth person resigned from trying to live independently, returning to an orphanage or to a foster family. Based on these studies, it can be concluded that the situation is similar to that of the young people from MOWs and MOSs. The above data show how important it is to provide effective and comprehensive assistance in empowering young people from orphanages and youth educational centres (MOW and MOS).
Grant: National Bank of Poland (Narodowy Bank Polski)