2015 Money for Life Challenge is go!

YOUNG people across Northern Ireland will have another chance to take part in Lloyds Banking Group’s Money for Life Challenge, a national competition to encourage young people to improve their money management skills.

The Money for Life Challenge is a UK-wide competition to find the most innovative and impactful ways that young people can improve the money management skills of their friends, families and communities.  Money for Life is delivered across Northern Ireland by NOW, a social enterprise that supports people with barriers to employment and learning.

Local teams of young people between the ages of 16-24 and who want to run a money management activity in their community can apply for a grant of £500 to help run their project by visiting the Money for Life Challenge website at www.moneyforlifechallenge.org.uk.

The best projects go head to head to win a coveted place at the NI and UK Grand Finals.

Last year the Money for Life Challenge helped launch more than 300 new projects across the UK.  In Northern Ireland, up to 40 grants were awarded to money-saving projects developed by teams of youths from further education colleges and the work-based or adult learning community.

Last year’s NI Challenge final winners were Lurgan’s Food for Thought, based in the town’s Wade Training Centre.  Their inspirational project identified ways in which their peers could make their money go further through the creation of low cost, tasty meals using healthy ingredients.  Runners-up and winners of the NI ‘People’s Prize’ were Microgardening with Herbs, a project developed by a group of teens based at the Clanrye Group in Newry which looked at ways to help those with no access to a garden to grow their own herbs and salad vegetables.

David Rowsell, Head of the Money for Life Programme at Lloyds Banking Group, says: “Our mission with the Money for Life Challenge is to encourage young people to create new and innovative ways to help enhance their own money management skills and promote greater financial literacy in communities across the country. Money for Life is a significant part of our vision to Help Britain Prosper as it enables more people to make good decisions about their finances.

“In 2013 we helped initiate hundreds of new projects, which helped discover a number of truly distinctive money management ideas. I would strongly encourage any young person with an interest in helping improve financial literacy in their community to apply to take part in this year’s Challenge.”

If you are aged between 16 to 24 and part of a group of young people that want to put a money-saving idea into practice, or you are part of an organisation in further education, work-based learning or adult community learning that works with young people who might be interested in taking part, please contact our Northern Ireland partner NOW on 028 9043 6400, by visiting www.nowproject.co.uk‎, or email [email protected]

The application period for the Money for Life Challenge runs from 1 September to 21 November 2014. Applications can be made online at www.moneyforlifechallenge.org.uk.

For more information, contact Gráinne Brinkley on 028 9043 6400, 078 8433 0036, or [email protected].

About Money for Life

Money for Life is Lloyds Banking Group’s award-winning personal money management programme, targeted at young people and adults in further education, training and community organisations. Lloyds Banking Group has invested £8 million in the programme from 2010 to 2014.

The Money for Life Qualifications provide accredited, fully-funded training to enable community support workers across the UK to embed personal money management skills at a local level. This train-the-trainer approach ensures a sustainable impact in local communities and organisations

The Money for Life Challenge is a national competition that provides £500 grants to empower teams of 16 to 24 year olds in further education, training and community organisations to run a money management project in their community.

The 2014 Money for Life Challenge will be delivered with our partners National Skills Academy for Financial Services, UK Youth, CollegesWales, Youth Cymru, Young Scot and NOW. Our partners are instrumental in the delivery and co-ordination of the Challenge.

Money for Life is also partnering with Home-Start to train employees to deliver money management workshops to vulnerable families during 2014.

Money for Life was awarded a Big Tick and was shortlisted in Business in the Community’s Building Stronger Communities Award 2014.

About NOW

NOW is an NI social enterprise that supports people with barriers to employment and learning.  NOW visualises a society where people of all learning abilities live, work and socialise as valued citizens.

For more information on the work NOW does, visit www.nowproject.co.uk.

About Lloyds Banking Group's Helping Britain Prosper Plan

Lloyds Banking Group has a combined history that stretches back more than 300 years and a heritage of making a difference within its communities that spans decades. Earlier this year, the Group published its Helping Britain Prosper Plan, setting out seven separate and significant public commitments to do even more to help address some of the big issues facing its customers and Britain right now. One of those key commitments is to take a lead in financial inclusion, to enable all individuals to access, and benefit from, the products and services they need to make the most of their money. Money for Life is a key component within the Plan.

Lloyds Banking Group is the first bank to measure its economic and social impact in this way. The Plan will be independently measured and monitored. To find out more about Lloyds Banking Group’s commitment to Help Britain Prosper, please visit http://www.lloydsbankinggroup-cr.com/

About Lloyds Banking Group

With a heritage of making a difference within its communities that spans decades, last year Lloyds Banking Group invested £85m in UK Communities. Through its branches and businesses the Group has the potential to reach every family and community in the UK, and places immense value on its commitment to helping Britain prosper. Driven by its desire to give back to the communities in which it operates, the Group supports a wide range of ground breaking programmes. Lloyds Scholars, Money for Life, Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Community Fund, the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Business Connectors, Lloyds Bank Foundations and the Bank of Scotland Foundation are some, but not exhaustive, examples of the programmes it supports.

PICTURE CAPTION: The team members of Food for Thought and Microgardening With Herbs celebrated at the NI Final of 2014 Money for Life Challenge back in April 2014.