The financial education offer of the Bank of Italy is also being enriched in Calabria, involving not only students of all ages, including those from the provincial centers for adult education, but also entrepreneurs, women and vulnerable people. The Catanzaro Branch, which coordinates the organization of events throughout the region, presented the program for the new year of the project, starting from the initiatives planned in October as part of the “Financial Education Month”. The activities and objectives were summarized by the deputy director of the Bankitalia branch in the Calabrian capital, Bruno Rizzieroand the project manager Marisa Mascaro.
“Initiatives that will continue until June 2024 – they said – and are aimed at all age groups, workers, consumers, the elderly, women to whom we reserve particular attention. “Women matter” is the title of one of our projects, they matter because they take care of their family, but they often delegate too much regarding family financial management and, when faced with situations of need, they do not have the skills to deal with emergencies. Together with the Soroptimist Club we will talk about planning and income, alternative payment systems to cash and online scams, loans and prevention of over-indebtedness. In collaboration with the Catanzaro District Notary Council, we will also continue the project “Know to protect ourselves” to train the operators of anti-violence centers and provide them with basic knowledge in economic and legal terms. With a view to inclusion, because we don’t want to leave anyone out, there will also be projects specifically dedicated to visually impaired and deaf people, with ad hoc audiovisual materials accompanied by translation into Lis. There will also be a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, who often do not have financial advisors within them, rely almost completely on accountants, and instead it is important to have an overall vision of the economic and financial situation of your business”.
During the presentation, the opportunity to strengthen synergy with the world of school: “For several years Bankitalia – added Mascaro – has been promoting educational workshops for all school cycles, it is essential to spread financial education as much as possible in our region. Calabrian students in this subject are last in Italy, a concerted effort is needed together to cancel the differences between North and South and make citizens increasingly able to consciously take care of their own affairs”. Giulio Benincasaofficial of the Regional School Office of Calabria, then underlined the positive collaboration initiated which has resulted in the experimentation of “a transversal teaching model which concerns the youngest, but also the former school-work alternation paths and adult education , combining with civic education and mathematics and becoming a useful orientation tool for future life choices”.