At SmartLyte, we deliver social change through Get Families Talking – our model of intergenerational learning.
Together, we improve people’s lives.
When Smartlyte was invited to participate in the Nobody in the Dark campaign we were really excited. Nobody in the Dark was first launched in March 2020 to offer immediate support to digitally and financially excluded people in the UK, especially those in poverty, hit hardest by the impact of COVID-19.
Relaunched in the summer of 2021, the coalition of Good Things Foundation, Mastercard, Lloyds Banking Group and Clean Slate joined forces to make sure no one is left behind by the digital revolution.
At Get Families Talking, we work with families experiencing poverty. A majority of our families and their children lack literacy skills and have limited digital and financial management skills. They have low aspirations for themselves and for their children. We change this by teaching parents skills and raising their aspirations.
The Leave Nobody In The Dark message of the Mastercard campaign allowed us to extend the learning and reach those hit hardest by the impact of Covid-19.
“We’ve been able to empower people during lockdown, remove shame around their financial situation, and build trust with our learners”
Parents have been able to learn about democracy and the role mothers can hold in the home. They have been taught about the influence and power managing the household budget can have, and how having savings can help their families.
Through our financial inclusion programme that we offer, we reinforce the message to all parents that as their child’s first teacher, they need to be positive financial role models and integrate good money and budgeting habits from early childhood.
During lockdown, with no face-to-face delivery possible, the resources from the Mastercard campaign helped to reinforce these key lessons.
The resources offered through the Mastercard Nobody in the Dark campaign have helped parents to address and discuss this in the home, implementing healthy habits of saving, shopping around and opening post daily.
Hafsha Shaikh, Get Families Talking Director, says: “The Mastercard Nobody in the Dark campaign has helped us find solutions to some of the financial challenges families face, in a simple and creative way. We’ve been able to empower people during lockdown, remove shame around their financial situation, and build trust with our learners so they don’t feel alone in the dark anymore and have the support they need to tackle their problems.”