Life as a Cooperative Banker

October 6th was the final day of training for our new cohort of Each One Teach One, Vancity’s financial literacy training team. The outgoing and super enthusiastic group of employees were being trained up to provide the absolute basics in financial literacy to communities who are typically shut out, for various reasons, from obtaining this type of help and support. Among them they represented 15 different languages and individuals who specified a desire to work with other communities such as Aboriginal, single-mothers, women escaping violence and youth. Best of all, these 18 employees were about to be released by branches and departments across the credit union to provide this needed community service on Vancity’s time. As this was their last day of training, they had a special guest, our CEO Tamara Vrooman, who spent a whole hour with these folks learning their individual stories of challenge and triumph. “Anything for staff” she shrugged as I thanked her; this is obviously not a “traditional” financial institution.

But of course I knew this already. Currently I’m Vancity’s Program Manager, Microfinance. “Microfinance” is often defined as the provision of financial services for poor and low-income clients. More broadly, microfinance refers to a movement that envisions a world in which low-income households have permanent access to a range of financial services to finance their economic activities, build assets, stabilize consumption, and protect against risks. These services are not limited to credit, but include savings, insurance, and access to basic transactional services.

A typical borrower at Vancity could be Jospehine, a lab tech from Zimbabwe who was working as a night janitor in a Vancouver medical facility. Her certification was unrecognized in Canada, but her employer recognized her skill set in a field desperate for workers. Her employer offered her a job, if she could update her certificate, but she lacked the funds to return to school. Our $3,000 loan for her training provided her not only access to this better paying, more comfortable job, but also a feeling of fulfillment for working in her chosen field.

Another typical borrower could be Andrew. Previously a graphic designer, as an adult he was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that would leave him blind. He recertified as a massage therapist, and needed $5,000 to start his small business. We provided not only the funds, but also a business coach that would help him through the business launch process. His enterprise is now thriving, but more importantly he still feels he’s an active contributor to society.

Without a doubt the reason we run the type of programming we do at Vancity has a lot to do with our co-operative roots, our sense of equality and member-based nature. Co-ops engage the local population and make them active members in resolving community challenges. They find local solutions for local problems; and that’s what makes communities thrive. That’s why a $3,000 loan to improve one individual’s economic and social standing is considered good business.

Co-ops represent to me the broadest opportunity we have as a planet to connect commonly as the human species and tackle the universal human pain and discomfort that we all know exists. I believe strongly in their ability to address root causes of community problems by providing the most robust and equitable means of ownership and accountability; they are the great equalizer in the general population. Millions of people around the world still face insurmountable poverty, but I believe in the power of human agency, and when you return choice and democratic control to the people, wonderful things can happen. That’s why I work at a Credit Union