Economic Development Programme (UK)

By April 2010, BRAC UK’s Economic Development Programme had reached 3,000 disadvantaged women and young people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with our basic money management course.

Participants attend a two hour local workshop includes budgeting, savings, banking products and information and debt information. Many of the women are illiterate in all languages, so materials are predominately visual and the sessions are interactive and dynamic. Sessions are conducted in English, Bengali or Somali.

The programme started in 2007 following a financial education needs assessment in Tower Hamlets. It was the first of its kind and identified the need, especially in disadvantaged Diaspora communities, for financial education.

Other components of our programme include working with young entrepreneurs to establish small businesses, and developing mini-projects to trial out innovative thinking to engaging young people.

Features of our approach include:

• Working and supporting young people who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET);
• Reaching the ‘hardest to reach’ communities to include them in our programmes;
• Breaking barriers between different communities to take shared ownership of their local area;
• Creating wider partnerships to meet the needs of individuals through collaboration;

The programme receives funding from Citi Foundation, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Office of Fair Trading through the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.