Educating young people and communities about financial awareness
Improving financial literacy in our communities

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Overview
The Money for Life Challenge is a national competition that provides £500 grants to empower teams of 16-24 year olds to develop innovative money management projects that impact their communities.
The Challenge launches annually in September and teams are invited to apply for a grant to address a money management issue they have identified in their community. Successful applicants are notified in November and have until March to complete and submit their project.
The top 10 projects in each nation are shortlisted to attend their national final. Representatives from the national teams are invited to the Grand Final in London.

Impact
250 projects were delivered in 2012-13 improving the money management skills of communities across the UK.
The Money for Life Challenge has had a major impact on young people’s confidence, job skills, and money management skills:
• 96% of Team Sponsors and 93% of Participants surveyed felt that the Challenge improved their confidence.
• 94% of Team Sponsors and 95% of Participants felt the Challenge improved participants’ teamwork, project management and communication skills.

Innovation
The Challenge gives groups of young people – often from disadvantaged backgrounds – grants to devise and run their own community-impact projects. This type of experiential learning allows the young people the opportunity to take risks and learn from their mistakes. It is life changing for those involved..
The Money for Life Challenge has been extremely successful at engaging participants via social media. We have generated a 168% increase in Twitter followers since summer 2012 and we have continued dialogue with the teams via social media on a daily basis.[/one_half_last]

Insight
The types of young people that the Money for Life Challenge engages with are from diverse and hard to reach backgrounds. For some individuals the Challenge is a platform that offers an opportunity to transform their lives. In the words of one tutor:
“The Money for Life Challenge provided an invaluable experience to the team. Teamwork, problem solving, motivation and financial awareness are only a few of the key life skills gained over the course of this project. In an academic, moral and social sense, this activity has proved to be a defining moment for all those involved”

Inspiration
One of the outstanding success stories of the Challenge last year was Troy Dennehy. A resident at East Thames’ Barking and Dagenham Foyer, a centre for homeless young people, Troy had previously been in gangs and been in trouble with the police.
Troy’s team’s Challenge project was to cook a healthy meal for 40 fellow residents at just £1.50 per head. After winning the England national final and then going on to win the Peoples Prize at the UK Grand Final, Troy has turned his life around and won a place on Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Apprenticeship Programme.[/one_half_last] Speakers
Irfan Zaman
Manager, Money for Life Programme
Lloyds Banking Group

Irfan is a Manager on the Money for Life Programme and leads on the Money for Life Challenge. Prior to joining Lloyds Banking Group, Irfan spent seven years working in Higher and Further Education at a wide range of organisations across the UK.