Microloan mission
You’ll need
- Pens or pencils
- Big pieces of paper
- Sticky notes
- Access to the internet
- Device with access to the internet
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.
Planning and setting up this activity
- Print off copies of the case studies, with one for each group.
Aim of the activity
Introduce Explorer Scouts to the concept of microloans and how small financial contributions can create a big impact in local or global communities. By researching real-life examples and working in teams to design their own microloan project, Explorers will develop their understanding of social enterprise and explore how they can support others in a sustainable and empowering way.
How to manage money
- Planning saving and borrowing
- Managing Risk
- Paying, borrowing and saving
Understanding the Important Role Money plays in our lives
- Personal and economic links with the wider world
This activity may touch on sensitive topics.
It’s important to create a safe, positive and supportive space where everyone feels comfortable. Let everyone know it’s okay to ask questions, say if they feel unsure, or step away at any time. Always follow the Yellow Card.
You might need to make adjustments, such as:
- Tell people about the activity in advance
- Offer the option to leave or do an alternative activity
- Speak with parents or carers beforehand
- Remind everyone they can talk to a trusted adult if they’re upset or worried
You can offer trusted support services if needed, such as Childline (0800 1111), Citizen’s Advice (0808 223 1133) and Crimestoppers (0800 555 111).
The Trussell Trust is a great place to start looking for a food bank near you. You can find details of independent food banks online. The UK Government have some debt advice support too.
Make sure that all adult volunteers and young leaders keep all discussions age-appropriate and supportive.
Learning about micro loans
- Gather everyone together, then split them into small groups.
- Explain to everyone that a bank loan is a long-term source of finance. It is a fixed amount of money that is given to a business by a bank and has to be repaid over time. A small loan is called a microloan. They’re often as small as £100 and are usually given to entrepreneurs in developing countries to help them work their way out of poverty.
- Read the two case studies.
- In groups, chat about each case study. You could talk about the impact each loan had, whether the person could have achieved what they did without the loan, and whether you think anything like this could work in your community.
- Next, ask groups to do some research and see if they can find the answers to these questions:
- What’s a microloan?
- Who uses microloans, and why?
- What organisations run microloan schemes? Some examples of website you could look at include the Global Microloan Platform, Lend with Care and the Microloan Foundation.
- What are some examples of successes?
Plan your project
- When everyone has completed their research, talk through the answers together.
- Now it’s time to see how you could use micro-loans.
- Each group needs to think of a project that would help others and plan how a microloan would help them achieve their goals. For example, they may wish to fundraise for Scouts but need a microloan to buy materials and equipment.
- While planning, they should consider these questions:
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- Who do they want to help? (This could be local or global)
- How would a microloan help them?
- How much money would they need?
- How would they repay the loan and is this manageable?
- How would we as Scouts help make this happen? For example fundraising, spreading awareness, working with a charity.
- When everyone has finished planning, come back together as a whole group.
- Let each group share their project idea with everyone else.
- You could link up with a local business or create a local Scout ‘loan pot’ to help young people become entrepreneurs in their local community. Each group could take out a microloan, then run their project and see how much money they can raise. They’d need to pay back the loan at the end, with any remaining profits being used to help a charity, collect donations, or be reinvested into Scouts.
Reflection
This activity gave everyone the opportunity to look into microloans and how they help different communities. While doing this everyone worked together to create a project plan for a microloan that would help their local community. Had you heard of microloans before? Was there anything about them that surprised you? How do you think they help people? During the planning of your own project, how did you all work together to come up with a project and decide what could be done to help? How do you think this loan would help people in your community? How do you think learning about microloans will help you in the future?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.
- Online safety
Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.
- To make it easier you could change the group sizes or give them something specific to plan their project on.
- If anyone doesn't feel comfortable presenting their ideas, give them the opportunity to help in other ways such as holding up the information or timing each groups presentation.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
