In our second week, we hit the ground running with eight interviews and a lot of behind-the-scenes work to prepare for more interviews in the next two weeks. These first interviews were 45-minute phone conversations with “Key Informants,” people who are experts on various topics relevant to RESPs and the CLB. Their areas of expertise included:
Past and present RESP/CLB programs
Financial Literacy Education
Pros and Cons of opening an RESP/CLB
The phone conversations exposed us to a variety of perspectives on the subject of REPS for low-income families. Some of the big things we heard are captured in the quotes below.
“Secondary Education is a long-term philosophy kick started by a short term reward [RESPs].”
“We’re always encouraging anyone who walks though doors to begin saving with the RESP. It’s pretty much free money”
“Even if you’re making a million dollars a year, the government is going to give you 20% so why are you saying no to free money?”
“People have a hard time believing that it really is free money. Free money!”
Banks and financial confidence:
“Building financial confidence, it is about changing behaviors and habits, not just handholding”
“That’s the thing about banks. They want a cut of your money and if you don’t have money what are you to them”
“Banks are hard to understand. I try to relate it to the super market, but people will never understand banks like they do the super market”
“Am I going to lose this money if my kid doesn’t go?”
“If there is no consumer protection for RESPs, it can be a bad idea for people in certain situations to open the account. It might be better for them to stay off the grid.”
“I just hope that the money can be used to support whatever choices they want to make in terms of making their lives better – whether that means training for a specific career or higher ed.”
After each phone call, our passion around the project grew and we are ready for another week of research, interviews and recruiting! The week ended with a great Skype session where we learned about the ins and outs of ethnography from an expert in the field, Julie Peggar. She shared a lot of her wisdom with us over the hour phone call and we are excited to incorporate those learnings into our approach for the coming interviews and potential ethnographies.
Also, below are two behind-the-scenes pictures of what many of our phone interviews looked like this week. Bridgeable moved offices on Friday offices and that meant that we had to get creative, finding boxes and Google’s online phone option to be our most valuable resources!
