Financial Literacy Program

Immigrant and Refugee Support

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

Owing to challenges such as language barriers, a lack of familiarity with the economy, and other cultural differences, immigrants and refugees struggle to learn about how to become financially secure in the United States. IFWF has developed a financial literacy course geared specifically towards immigrants and refugees accounting for their unique challenges. At the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of their financial situation in the context of living in the US and will be equipped to responsibly handle their finances. This will set them up for success in other interdisciplinary aspects of life. The course will cover many important topics, including budgeting, opening a bank account, understanding and building credit, taxes, and savings. Each lesson has practical goals students will meet as they progress through the course. For instance, an after the budgeting lesson students will be able to prepare their own budget for their monthly income and expenses.

While many financial literacy courses exist, IFWF created a course that uniquely accounts for the specific needs of immigrants and refugees in Southern California. The course contains topics that will be particularly valuable to new Americans, accounting for gaps in information that they may hold. Furthermore, the financial literacy course is written in basic English and will include translations into the highest-need languages, with specific representation of immigrants in California: Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, French and Russian. IFWF is capable of providing the course directly to refugees and immigrants who already have ties to the organization. The course will be offered for free and entirely online, and IFWF offers participants help in accessing the course.

IFWF currently directly serves over 500 families with other programs for refugees monthly in California. This California audience will benefit from our new Financial Literacy Program first. We will indirectly serve members of other agencies that are in our network through the Network4Home project. This network joins 17 nonprofit organizations in Southern California. We estimate over 10,000 users on a monthly basis through it. Given the scope of our reach, improving financial literacy outcomes for our students will impact Los Angeles County at the family, neighborhood, and city levels. Families will have a better understanding of their own finances. In addition, they will have a better understanding of how to contribute to neighborhood-level economies with employment and local spending. This impact across many communities will ultimately increase responsible financial practices across Los Angeles County as a whole.

The instruments for evaluation are: -The satisfaction survey will be given to participants upon course completion. It will be used to understand the most / least favorable content, materials, and methods delivery. -The pre and post-test will be administered to participants at the beginning and end of the course. The results will be compared to show how much each participant has learned during the course. It will be used to improve on program learning objectives. -The mini module quizzes will be implemented at the end of each module. These quizzes will be used to understand which modules or sections of the course produced stronger learning outcomes and make improvements on ones that show the least retention of materials. -The post interview will be administered at the end of course for interested participant to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the course. This will help improve the program's inclusivity, methods of course delivery, and most and least successful elements.