Grow Your Own Advice
Too many people in London are facing serious money and welfare challenges, yet the advice sector is overstretched and often does not reflect the communities most affected by poverty and racial inequality.
As a result, many go without timely, culturally appropriate support at the moments they need it most.
The Challenge We’re Addressing
Across London, many people are facing serious money and welfare challenges - from rising living costs to complex benefit issues and mounting debt.
Yet the advice sector is stretched beyond capacity and often doesn’t reflect the communities most affected by poverty and racial inequality.
​
This gap means too many people are left without timely, culturally aware support at the moments they need it most.
It also means preventable crises worsen, opportunities are missed, and families who could thrive unfortunately struggle to stay afloat.
About Grow Your Own Advice
Grow Your Own Advice is a partnership between Money A+E and Rooted Finance, two organisations led by and for people from diverse ethnic communities. Together we support small, community-based groups to develop high-quality debt and welfare advice services that are trusted, local and sustainable.
​
We focus on organisations led by and for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds. These communities are more likely to experience poverty and often face barriers when trying to access mainstream advice.
By training advisers from within the communities they serve, the programme builds trust, increases engagement and ensures that support is culturally aware, relevant and easier to access.
Who The Programme Is For
The programme works with around 12 grassroots VCSE organisations each year. We focus on groups led by and for people from diverse ethnic communities across London.
Each organisation nominates staff members or volunteers with lived experience of financial challenges to train as community advisers. Organisations can choose to train their team members as debt advisers, welfare benefits advisers, or both.
​
Participants are usually people who want to support their own communities but who may have been excluded from traditional routes into the advice sector.
To date, around 85% of trainees have been from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This shows the programme’s growing role in diversifying the advice workforce and creating more accessible pathways into the sector.
What the Programme Offers
Grow Your Own Advice provides a structured 12 to 18 month pathway that combines high-quality training, practical experience and tailored support.
​
The programme includes:
​
1) Technical debt advice training aligned with the Money and Pensions Service quality framework. This is delivered in partnership with organisations such as Wiser Adviser, Advice UK and the Institute of Money Advisers.
​
2) A welfare benefits advice pathway that leads to a new City & Guilds quality mark. This offers formal recognition that strengthens advisers’ future employment prospects.
​
3) Optional Money Mentors training accredited by OCN London, along with soft skills development in areas such as communication, client engagement and confidence-building.
​
Trainees receive one-to-one support, observation opportunities and supervised casework. Dedicated casework supervisors in debt and welfare provide quality assurance, mentoring and coaching throughout the programme.
​
Each partner organisation receives a small grant to help backfill roles and support their team’s participation.
​
We aim to support participants who are not already in employment to progress into paid work.
The Difference the Programme Makes
Grow Your Own Advice aims to reduce structural inequity in who gives and who receives money and welfare advice in London. By embedding lived experience and community leadership at every stage, the programme helps ensure that advice is accessible, culturally competent and shaped by real needs rather than imposed from outside.
​
Over time, the programme seeks to create:
​
1) Community organisations that can meet local advice needs in-house, reducing reliance on overstretched mainstream services and improving access to timely support.
​
2) A more diverse and representative advice workforce, with more people from minoritised communities progressing into paid roles and leadership positions.
​
3) A scalable workforce development model that other funders and regions can adopt to build fairer, stronger and more resilient advice systems.
​
To find out more, please contact luke@moneyaande.co.uk