As organisations working with youth, we often engage with young people who come from families facing difficult social and economic circumstances. Many of these families live below the poverty line, while others struggle daily just to make ends meet.

Research highlights that poverty is not a single, uniform experience but can take different forms. A particularly relevant type for the families we work with is Generational Poverty. This refers to a cycle of poverty that persists across multiple generations within a family or community. It is characterised by long-term deprivation where poverty becomes embedded as a way of life, transmitted from parents to children (Taylor & Francis, 2007).

The Youth Invest initiative seeks to address this by equipping young people with financial literacy skills that can help them break free from the cycle of generational poverty. Financial literacy education provides young people with the knowledge, tools, and practical skills needed to make informed decisions about earning, saving, budgeting, and investing. Research shows that when financial literacy is introduced from an early age, young people have significantly greater chances of breaking their family’s poverty cycle and creating new opportunities for themselves and future generations (McClain, 2020).

Through this project, we aim to empower young people to become financially capable, independent, and resilient, thereby creating pathways out of generational poverty.

Project YOUTHINVEST is co-funded by the European Union.