5 The One Where We Took Care of Stuff

Financial Literacy and Community Partnerships

Rania Zammar is a Regional Enablement Coach at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), working with senior managers at the bank to build their capacity, their teams, and their portfolios. While working as a branch manager at a branch near the College, Rania became a frequent visitor; from career fairs, to guest speaker and panel participants, and student support through various opportunities. As part of her role, Rania is invested in developing community relationships.

Professor Angela Lyrette was a banker for several years before she started teaching in finance programs at Algonquin College. She had always been interested in the power of money; the positive and negative ways possessing it changes people, its unequal distribution, and thinking of ways to teach people how to control how much they have access to.

Angela wanted to create a community-based work-integrated learning assessment for a capstone course in the 2-year Financial Services Graduate Certificate. As a volunteer member of the Financial Literacy Action Network of Ottawa (FLANO), Angela knew that there were valuable hands-on projects available for students in the community. It was especially important for her students to get exposure through real-life case studies to the financial needs of vulnerable populations in addition to common textbook case studies, which usually highlight the financial needs and solutions for wealthy Canadians.

Together, Rania and Angela arranged to meet the program manager of a downtown community housing apartment building and approximately 10 of her clients over pizza. The assignment would explore the financial needs of the community housing residents.

Angela and Rania expected questions about budgeting strategies, tips for avoiding scams, and resources for moving away from payday loan services into traditional financial institutions. The residents came with their budget tools in-hand, some used pen and paper, one had an organized finance binder, some used online tools and spreadsheets. Some of their money troubles was a result of a deep culture of sharing; buying treats for friends and giving their cash away to someone who needed it more. Their burning question for the two was “What happens to my stuff when I die?” Angela and Rania were stunned. They listened as residents described seeing the belongings of their passed friends thrown in the garbage, sentimental items like household ornaments, and practical items like mattresses, this was their greatest concern. Rania led a conversation around wills and estate planning, writing formal instructions, and using networking and negotiation skills with program managers and facilitators. The conversation migrated naturally to barriers faced by residents to accessing traditional banking. Residents told the pair that using payday loan organizations was convenient, and they were never made to feel ‘othered’ and ‘less than’ by staff, they way they sometimes felt in banks. The downside was drug dealers often waited outside of payday loan organizations to take advantage of ready cash. Rania promised to go back to her branch network and lead a conversation with the team about access to basic financial services, in Canada, this is a fundamental right. She gave the residents her contact information, tips on how to ask for help opening an account, and suggested a few friendly RBC branches where they could visit.

The resulting assignment outline and rubric, together with an exemplar assignment were created from this experience. Rania continues to visit Angela’s classes as a guest and panel speaker.