By: Family Service PEI
On Tuesday October 14th we launched our new financial literacy toolkit for seniors- It’s Your Right- Protecting Yourself Financially As You Age. This project has been made possible through the Government of Canada New Horizons for Seniors Project.
Special guests that attended the launch of our new toolkit were: Hon. Lieutenant Governor Lewis, Hon. Minister Wong Minister of State (Seniors), Hon. Valerie Docherty Provincial Minister of Community Services & Seniors, MLA Mr. Aylward Opposition House Leader. We greatly appreciated the attendance of all our special guests and all who participated in the launch.
Financial difficulties can happen to anyone. This toolkit was developed based on the input of PEI seniors, and is designed to educate and empower the senior themselves, encouraging them to utilize available resources to take a pro-active approach to protecting themselves financially as they age. Even though it was developed by seniors for seniors it is a great toolkit for anyone. Increasing financial literacy at any age will decrease a persons’ vulnerability, and subsequently help prevent financial abuse.
The toolkit, It’s Your Right-Protecting Yourself Financially As You Age, has eight main topics. These include:
- Who Can You Trust?
- Lending, Giving, and Donating
- Talking About Money
- Scams & Frauds
- Tips & Safeguards
- Planning For Your Future
- Financial Abuse
- Getting Help
The content of this toolkit has been derived from local, regional and national resources, including the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the Canadian Bankers Association, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and many more.
The toolkit can be found at www.ItsYourRight.ca.We would encourage seniors to take advantage of the hands on training session, which will teach the ins and outs of the toolkit and increase financial literacy. The training dates and locations can be found on the website or by calling 902-436-9171.
Knowing that not everyone has access to the internet, we have developed a print version of this toolkit. We are working hard to make this toolkit available to all PEI seniors through local libraries, seniors clubs and banks.