Financial Literacy - Create (Arts) Limited

MEET AMARI: “I WILL USE WHAT I’VE LEARNT WHEN I’M A BUSINESSMAN”

In a 2023 Carers Trust survey, 56% of young carers said that the cost-of-living crisis affects them and their family. With 17% of young carers aged 16-17 helping with financial matters in the home, financial education is more important than ever.

Recently, we ran our change:matters project in Enfield. change:matters is our project supporting young carers by enhancing their financial literacy using creative artforms. In partnership with Chickenshed, an inclusive theatre company, we ran drama workshops to explore the emotional impact that debt and poor money management can have.

Amari, a young carer from Enfield, attended the project and shared his experiences.

“Saving is the Future” is a poem written by a group of young carers in Enfield on our creative arts project, change:matters. Here it is performed by young carer Amari and Nurturing Talent artist Autumn Sharkey.

“I care for my brother and my mum. My mum has scoliosis and my brother has autism and Tourette’s. I think I was about five years old when I began my caring role, which involves making my brother and my mum meals. I spend all day caring, as I just do what I can to help out. My experiences are different to someone who doesn’t have caring responsibilities.

“During change:matters we learnt about money and budgeting. We did this through drama workshops with Create and Chickenshed. In the workshops we were learning about money by acting out what people being in debt felt like, and what happens when the bailiffs come.

“I learnt that what can really help for budgeting is a shopping list. There’s a current account, which is when you use [the account] every day. Then there’s a savings account. That’s where you put some money from your work, just in case you’re saving for something. Then there’s also a debit card that you use almost every day and a credit card that you use to pay back. I’ve learnt about budgeting. I also learnt about interest, which is when you can put money in the bank and get more a year later. I will definitely use what I have learnt because I would like to be a businessman when I’m older. I think it will help me to have a lot more money through budgeting and saving more.

“Spending time with other young carers made me feel great. I feel happy that I get to speak to other young people who are going through something similar to me. I found it really great and fun. I got to socialise and learn at the same time. I really enjoyed it, and wish I could do it again.”

change:matters in Enfield was funded by The Chartered Accountants’ Livery Charity.

Meet matt, a prisoner and create participant

creative writing post its

Inside Change is our project that enables prisoners to explore financial literacy through radio drama.

In September 2022, a group of prisoners worked with our professional drama and recording artists James and Tony to write, perform and record a radio play. Centred on personal finance issues, this enabled them to develop their financial capability in areas such as budgeting, debit, APR and money choices. The project has been designed to support a smoother transition back into the community on release, with new literacy, finance and social skills, and improved self-esteem.

We spoke to Matt (23) about his experiences on the project.

“I’ve done nothing like this before at all. We’ve learnt lots of things about money management, such as mortgages. We’ve learnt how to handle debt, build credit and move forward in the future with money.

“I signed up because I thought it would be interesting to try something different, like with the radio stuff, and learn something new. It’s been a good laugh. I feel comfortable, I feel like I’ve learnt a lot of things, met some good people.

“It’s taught me how to build credit and certain mortgage options you can take out, and basically helping me move forward with future decisions because I’m still quite young. I can put forward what I’ve learnt to other people who have the same worries as I did before starting the project.

“It was really good working with James. He’s good energy, very positive and he listened to everyone who speaks to him. It was good working with the group. I’ll speak to them more often now than I did originally.

“It’s just been fun to be honest with you. It’s been really, really good, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve also learnt that I’m terrible at doing a Philip Schofield accent!

“Doing something creative is important because it takes you out of prison and makes you feel like you’re not in prison for the time you’re here.”

Inside Change at this prison was funded by The Boris Karloff Charitable Foundation and Santander UK Foundation Limited.