Policy Officer, Community Justice Glasgow
Last year Adele Prendergast contacted Community Justice Glasgow to share information on Your Pay Your Way, a social enterprise that Adele had established to provide a programme of financial education. Adele is an ex big 4 accountant and has been working in the financial education arena for several years. The team at Your Pay Your Way have over 20 years of combined experience in delivering financial education. Their programmes are flexible and be tailored to meet needs.
While initially aimed at young people, it quickly became clear that many of our partners and working groups support those who could benefit from financial education. A virtual information session was therefore arranged in October 2021 to introduce the service to as wide an audience as possible, with all partners invited. Feedback was positive and many partners were able to see how a programme of financial education could help mitigate the risk of reoffending, and support people to be independent in the community.
Your Pay Your Way has the vision:
“To create a Scotland where everyone has a solid understanding of their personal finances and can make financial decisions with confidence.”
And aims to see:
• a reduction in problem debt across Scotland;
• fewer people using borrowing for everyday expenses;
• an increase in households with savings; and
• improved financial wellbeing across the country.
Adele commented:
“Our program has been developed in such a way that we can use this with younger children and more mature adults. We’re seeing impact across multiple age groups, and businesses are now taking up the opportunity to add an employee benefit for their early careers staff while supporting non-profit groups in their local area.”
“Most of our members have learning disabilities or mental health issues with additional support needs but the session was pitched perfectly. From the start, Adele connected well with everyone, encouraging interaction, and talking about issues that affected their lives. Adele spoke about serious issues but in a way that everyone could relate to and brought the information to life so they could relate it to their own lives. Everyone was relaxed and keen to ask questions which were answered knowledgeably and promptly. One of the members said to me later ‘she is so down to earth’ Money is an uncomfortable subject but it seemed so easy on this occasion. I have passed her details on to other workers within the Organisation as we’d like to have her back.
Community Living Worker – Neighbourhood Networks”
Your Pay Your Way have also produced a series of podcasts, covering topics including:
- The Mysterious World of Pensions
- Expenses and Budget Building
- What’s Your Income?
- #DebtAwarenessWeek
- Bank Accounts and How to Pick One
- We Need to Talk….About Money
- Your Pay Your Way Trailer
These concise and engaging podcasts are easy to access and refer people to who may want more information – YOU CAN CLICK ON THE LINK OR SCAN THE QR CODE BELOW TO LISTEN:
