ELBA is joining organisations across the country in celebrating Black History Month. Whilst it is undoubtedly important to celebrate the many valuable contributions that Black people have made to British history, we also feel that it is essential to highlight the incredible work that Black leaders are doing in the present day. They are, after all, creating our history!

We’re delighted to spotlight Arinola Araba, Founder and Director of bMoneywize, who shared her important work with us as well as her motivations to make change.

What does your charity/organisation do?
bMoneywize provides an innovative educational solution to teaching young people financial literacy and numeracy skills in an increasingly ‘cashless society’. We make managing money ‘child’s play’.

• Our Mission: To improve financial literacy and numeracy skills for young people.
• Our Vision: To become a world leader at equipping a younger generation with timely financial skills to enable them to make debt-free choices in an increasingly cashless society!
• Our Work: We provide resources and services in the form of interactive educational games and workshops respectively. We are currently working on the development of an interactive educational game app to teach the same skills: savings goal setting, decision-making, negotiating, budget setting and expense tracking.

You may wish to read our story from the ITV News website or listen to the BBC documentary.

What challenges do your service users face?
Our service users fall into two categories and may need knowledge, skills, or confidence to manage or talk about money (from the M Word campaign, as advertised by Lloyds Bank).

They are:

• Customers (Parents, Carers, Teachers)
• Consumers (school age children, young people)

The Challenges: Customers need access to readily available, affordable, easy-to-use tools to help children understand and practise good money habits in a safe play environment. Consumers need tools and resources to equip them with knowledge, confidence and skills to handle money, in a fun way!

How does your work help them to overcome these challenges?
Our board games encourage fun, engaging and interactive conversation, a sharing of experiences and learning. It also provides opportunities for decision-making on money issues with tasks that encourage spending and saving tracking.

Do you have an inspirational story/moment such as a case study that you would like to share?
One of the highlights of our work was when I had the opportunity to ask our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, what plans he had for providing financial education to children of school-age: Watch the 5 minute clip here.

Following this, I am so excited to share that early this year, the Money and Pensions service launched a nationwide financial wellbeing strategy to provide financial foundations to 2 million school age children over the next 10 years.

What motivates you to do the work that you do?
I am motivated by results! When people take the trouble to send a video of their family playing the board game, when they send me texts, emails, voice notes and testimonials of how the games are helping, I feel very happy and humbled to have created a solution people find useful.

What does Black History Month mean to you?
It’s a time to celebrate and share stories of how Black people have been making a difference in their communities!

Can you tell us about a black leader/role model/hero who has inspired you? Please tell us about the impact that this person had on you.
Without a doubt Tyler Perry! He came from a humble background where his mum suffered abuse from his father. He has also used some of those stories to inspire his drama and films whilst creating a platform for so many entertainment professionals to perform their craft. I am so impacted by his ability to create opportunities for others, not just himself.

I would like to create something amazing that many people can benefit from for years to come!

If you’d like to find out more about bMoneywize you can visit their website. If you’re interested in volunteering or supporting the organisation please contact Jonathan Tait, jonathan.tait@elba-1.org.uk.

To read about Hackney Young People’s University, our other community organisation spotlighted this month, click here.