Financial mentoring
The Fono's financial mentoring service is known as Building Financial Capabilities (BFC). We offer education and resources to assist you in improving your financial situation and encourage you in setting achievable financial goals for yourself and your family.
What to do if you're stuck
- Drowning in debt can feel like a neverending cycle. We have an experienced team of financial mentors from varied cultural backgrounds, with experience in finance and social work. They're dedicated to help you improve your relationship with debt and empower you to take positive actions to control your finances.
- Our service is whanau centred, this means including your family in the journey. Your family will participate in tasks like planning family finance goals or creating a budget that is manageble. This creates an open and transparent relationship to finances for you and your family.
- Depending on your situation, our time with you can be a few weeks or it can be a few months. During this time we also connect you with other services that can help you achieve specific goals, like a mortgage broker or even other services here at The Fono. We can also advocate on your behalf and family, with housing providers, or loan providers to keep you on track with your plan.
- We're a mobile based service, visiting you where you feel the most comfortable. This can be at your home if you have young children, at work or in the community. Our team will work along side you and celebrate financial milestones with your family.
Who can access it
Our financial mentoring service is available to anyone experiencing financial hardship or seeking additional guidance for achieving financial stability, and it's completely free. Our service is open to individuals of all ages and ethnicities who reside in specific Auckland areas:
- West Auckland
- Central Auckland
- East Auckland
- North Shore
If you do not live in one of these areas, we can provide referrals to other agencies to assist you in your local community.
What we can help with
Together with our financial mentors, you will:
- Identify your aspirations
- Develop a plan forward
- Focus on goals that reduce immediate financial pressure
- Create a manageable budget
- Gain confidence to re-negotiate payments and expenses
Our mentors can also:
- Assist you with Kiwisaver applications
- Advocate on your behalf with loan agencies or car repayment companies
- Connect you to services like financial advisors and mortgage brokers
Connecting through talanoa
What can I expect?
Make contact with us
You can contact us through a referral onsite at WINZ, from other The Fono services or by self-referral using the online form. Someone from our helpful team will call you within 48 hours from the receipt of contact.
We'll call you within 48 hours
We will call you and ask you some questions. At this time, let us know if you are in our specific catchment area. This will help us understand what support is needed and who is the best person to connect with.
We'll book an appointment with you
An appointment will be booked for you at a location of your choosing. This can be at your home, a café or our office. During this appointment we will share information.
Next steps
Further appointments will be booked once the type of support has been identified. These appointments can be by phone or in person, at your home where possible. In each appointment, we'll review your plan and how you've achieved each goal, and identify if other resources are needed to support your journey.
Get financial mentoring today!
Are ready to take the next step towards achieving financial freedom or you want to learn more about our programme. Connect with us today and a member of our helpful team will be in touch with you within 2 - 3 working days.
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Have questions? We've got answers.
Frequently asked questions
Building financial confidence can be hard. Here are a few questions we get the most. If you don't see what's on your mind, you can use the search bar at the top of the page to look for what you need.