Financial mentors

Financial mentors provide free, confidential one-on-one service to support people and whānau build on their financial wellbeing.

They focus on building trust, understanding each person’s needs, reducing immediate pressures and working together with whānau to create a plan for future goals.

Financial mentors advocate with creditors, connect people to other services, and use a strength based, non-judgemental approach to work alongside people as they build on their financial wellbeing.

The right support at the right time

Financial mentors support people and whānau to connect with local networks and social services to ensure they get the right support at the right time.

This could mean the financial mentor:

• supports and empowers clients to navigate the system to control debt by negotiating reduced payments or generating additional resources
• advocates on a client’s behalf as they are often too stressed to negotiate with creditors or other lenders on their own
• links people to other supports, such as Kahukura within BFC Plus services, iwi, Work and Income, health support services, housing providers, etc.

Financial mentors also:

• support a client and their whānau to set meaningful goals to get control of their financial lives. This can include a focused Financial Plan of Action 
• assess whether a client may benefit by sharing and learning in group support such as MoneyMates.