Online financial education program KiddieNomics empowers kids to become financially informed and empowered

BY PAUL JUNOR

The topic of financial literacy has become very important all over the world. It is more important during the COVID-ID pandemic when many families are experiencing severe financial and economic challenges.

In Ontario, the provincial government has deemed it necessary that all students in elementary schools are exposed to financial concepts such as: budgeting, credit, money management and online banking. This is reflected in the revised elementary school mathematics curriculum which was released in March, 2018 in Ontario schools.

KiddieNomics, an online financial literacy program was started by Stacy Brown. It was launched in December 2018. When the pandemic started in 2020, they started a free weekly kids literacy webinar series.

Stacy Brown says that learning financial literacy skills is for everyone. The great thing about KiddieNomics is that it feels inclusive to all, especially for minority communities such as the BIPOC community.

KiddieNomics is geared for kids between eight and thirteen years old. A lot of the kids who join are from the black and other racialized communities. The hope is that programs like this will place them on the path to a successful financial future.

Stacy has a background in the financial industry. She has always taught the importance of financial literacy to teenagers and younger adults. She started a YouTube channel in December, 2018, which features BIPOC experts covering a diverse range of topics. Stacy’s passion is to educate kids based on her awareness of how challenging it was for younger adults to learn proper financial lessons after a lifetime of unhealthy financial habits. This propelled her to focus on young kids to ensure that they become financially savvy.

In an interview she stated “We should really be focusing on teaching financial literacy to kids so they start learning skills early-on that will lead to positive financial decisions before making an income. Once a child becomes financially literate, it helps keep the entire family accountable for what they do and don’t do.”

Since May, 2020 Ms. Stacy and her ten-year-old daughter, Miki have hosted a weekly Friday financial webinar on Zoom that covers a range of topics such as; investing in real estate, stocks, bitcoins, taxes, RESP, credit, business trademarks, insurance and other topics. She has featured many BIPOC experts such as: Billie-Jane Bolton Rojo,April Mullings, Michael Thorpe,Michelle Williamson, Gloria Kapuku, Andrea Peart, Hadriana Peart and Jane Janniere, Dr. Jill Andrew and Marci Ien.

I was able to interview Ms. Brown on Tuesday, May 11^th. She shared with me how her work with schools propelled her to pursue her passions and interests in financial literacy. She told me of a principal who told her emphatically, “Kids who are on social assistance, do not need to know about financial literacy.” She was dismayed by these remarks and this motivated her to teach financial concepts to kids. She believes that having a healthy relationship with money is vital to building meaningful and satisfying interactions with finances.

She states, “Financial literacy is a human rights issue. It has a broad scope. This means every person no matter what race, gender, class or background is impacted by it. It affects every aspect of our life, how we live, what we do and become.”

Stacy believes that it is important to leave not just generational wealth but generational knowledge for children. Parents who are interested can register their kids for free using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or KiddieNomics.com.  At present between 40-50 kids attend weekly webinars and about 548 are registered from around the world.