Fort William First Nation aims to provide more financial literacy among youth
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — Fort William is aiming to provide youth with more financial literacy, including information about saving and managing money, through a series of presentations, such as a Budgeting and Planning presentation by IG Wealth Management’s Nicole Slongo. Slongo’s presentation was held on June 12 at the Fort William First Nation Community Centre’s Cultural Room.
“The goal is to start using some of our Seven Grandfather Teachings in all that we do — it’s a good solid foundation to do that,” says Cheyenne Tibishkogijig, cultural worker at Fort William. “So really, this is just the groundwork that we hope to do over the next course of the year with our youth is to kind of talk about money and how to save because that is going to help set their future and get them thinking.”
Tibishkogijig says they are trying to set the precedent that it is important to save for the future.
“In the grand scheme of things, that is the real treat yourself — we really need to remind our youth that you’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” Tibishkogijig says. “How do we get them to do that? We have to start small, so we have to start talking about budgeting and saving at an early age, as soon as we can, so they can get the things they want and think bigger. So, constantly setting goals for themselves around money gets them into that saving mentality.”
Slongo, senior financial advisor at IG Wealth Management, says she talks about planning and goals when talking with youth in general.
“Financial planning is for people that are learning to use the resources they have to make their lives better, so talking to the youth is really about talking to them to start to get them thinking about what do they want increments of their life to look like,” Slongo says. “If you get an idea of what you think your life is going to look like in the next one year, three years or five years, then you’ll have an idea of how you can manage whatever resources come your way. So it’s really about planning and about kind of goal setting and getting them to start really thinking about what is important to them.”
Slongo says she has been advising Fort William First Nation with its pension plan for the past 10 years, including doing financial literacy seminars with the members of the pension plan twice a year.
“A lot of the members throughout the years have brought their 18-year-old children to me when they’ve received their land money,” Slongo says. “I met with one when I was there last week, she’s 27 now, and she came to me and she said, ‘I still have money left over from the way that you showed me how to do everything.’ So if someone can just take our youth and give them a few tools to propel them forward in a way that, yes, they’re going to blow money today, but how can they prepare to help themselves in the future?”
Slongo adds that looking for professional help is important.
“My advice on that is make sure that you talk to somebody that is listening to you,” Slongo says. “Make sure that you talk to somebody that you feel is understanding where you’re coming from and what your goals are and isn’t telling you what you should be doing but really listening to your situation and creating a plan, especially for the youth that has flexibility because they are in the most transitional phase of their life so they really need a plan that has flexibility built in.”