Northampton Metro Bank, will be helping Care Leavers at the University of Northampton Waterside Campus on Wednesday March 8th.
Metro Bank, is a signatory of the Care Leaver Covenant – a joint promise made by the private, public and voluntary sectors to provide support for care leavers aged 16-25 to help them to live independently.
Around 11,000 young people (aged 16 - 18) leave care each year and the aim of the Care Leaver Covenant is to provide them with additional support. The Covenant centres around five key areas - independent living; education, employment and training; finance; safety and security; mental and physical health.
Since signing the Covenant, Metro Bank has started to deliver new bespoke Money Zone sessions for young adult care leavers. Money Zone is a series of financial education lessons about budgeting, saving and banking that Metro Bank has already delivered to over 250,000 UK school children.
Metro Bank has also introduced a special identification process for care home residents and care leavers to make it easier for them to open bank accounts and become financially independent.
“We are committed to supporting young adults leaving the care system,” explains Amber Dunlop, store manager at Northampton’s Metro Bank. “Care leavers don’t always have conventional identification and verification and they can struggle with opening a bank account - which is one of the first key steps to becoming independent. We will also be offering our bespoke Money Zone programme to help Northampton care leavers understand financial management. We are helping them take their first steps independent steps towards managing their personal finances.”
Metro Bank’s Northampton store is at 27-29 Abington Street, Northampton, NN1 2AN. The store is open Monday to Saturday: 8.30am to 6pm, Sundays: 11am to 5pm.