Apply to get involved with the Money for Life Community Challenge today!

Apply to get involved with the Money for Life Community Challenge today!

Money for Life’s Community Challenge has relaunched! We are giving young people the chance to design, develop and deliver their very own community project.

Community Challenges provide a real opportunity to put the new money management skills you’ve learnt through the Money Masterclass into action. Successful applications will be awarded funding of up to £400 to deliver their project.

This concept is not a new one. Back in 2013 an inspirational young person, Martin Berisford, took up the Community Challenge in his local area of Coventry and made a raging success of his money motivated project.

The heart of his project was about helping others through raising the profile of the credit union, to support young people with their financial skills and money management in a hands-on way.

Martin identified that the local credit union at his college was not being used some students were not even aware of it. So he got together a team of young people and they developed a project to raise the profile of the credit union, to inform people about the value of the credit union, to make it more popular and better utilised by the community.

For Martin personally, it really helped build his own financial skills and confidence, and take them to the next level. Martin was diagnosed with autism, and his Community Challenge project made him move out of his comfort zone, present to others, meet high profile stakeholders and develop leadership skills – it had a huge impact on his life.

Since taking part in the Community Challenge, Martin has gone on to do further studying, and to have the confidence to go to university, which he puts down to Money for Life. Martin said “This was a life changing experience for me. It sounds cliche but it is true.”

So why not apply for your own Community Challenge today and make a difference in your community?

Martin’s top tips for YOUR community challenge:

• Get involved and give it your all;
• Meet as many people as possible, and start conversations with new people you meet;
• Jump at opportunities and have confidence – initially it might feel intimidating talking to someone from Lloyds or to your local MP but there is lots you can get out of it;
• Push yourself to get out of your comfort zone;
• Have clear aims of what you want to do and who you want to help;
• Use social media to promote your project and raise awareness

Don’t forget to tweet @MoneyforLifeUK

Ready to apply for your Community Challenge? Find out more here.