Building Futures: Our Commitment to Affordable Housing and Financial Literacy Education

Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver is committed to providing strength, stability, and independence for hard-working families through affordable housing.  

Once our families unpack their boxes, children settle into their new schools and parents adjust to their new routine, we turn our attention to something very important – building the financial literacy skills of our families. 

Financial literacy is the ability to understand and use a variety of skills to effectively budget, save and invest. We know that a strong foundation in financial literacy helps achieve future life goals, like reducing debt, saving for children’s education, or planning for retirement.  

We want our families to develop these skills, have a healthy relationship with money and begin their lifelong journey of learning. That is why we have worked with several community partners to deliver a yearlong education series for every new Habitat for Humanity partner family. 

Last September, we introduced our 9-part Education Series, delivered on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. We partnered with experts from Vancity, Prospera, and the Credit Counselling Society to deliver presentations on a variety of topics, such how to budget, strengthening your credit, investment strategies, to creating your own will. Our families actively participated in these sessions and can access the presentation materials and additional resources on a Partner Family Education Hub we created so families can explore at their convenience.   

We appreciate the commitment to learning our families have showed and for the support of our community partners in building the skills, knowledge, and confidence of our Habitat families. That’s why we offered more learning opportunities for our families this year. This fall we hosted a “Mortgages 101” presentation and invited all our partner families in Richmond, Burnaby and Mission. Next up in February, we will be hosting a session on “Earning Extra Income”, a topic of great interest to our families. 

Through affordable housing and financial literacy education, our partner families are strengthening the foundation of their future. We couldn’t be prouder to play a part in their journey.