SEDI received funding through the Toronto Community Foundation to pilot a project called the Opportunities Account for Youth in Care. The pilot allows SEDI to partner with the Children's Aid Society of Toronto (CAST) and Catholic Children's Aid Society (CCAS) in order to build their capacity to provide financial literacy education to up to 300 youth in care. This involves training staff on financial literacy and supporting them to provide this information to the youth that they work with.

In addition , this funding allows SEDI to work with the CAST and CCAS to pilot a project that encourages youth to open a savings account, save towards a particular goal and accumulate a savings match of 3:1 to go towards their savings goal (with the help of case management and financial literacy education). This “matched savings account” will be offered to 20 youth in care. Accounts will be held at TD Bank, the financial institution partnering with SEDI on the project. The eligible savings goals for this project include: tuition, rent or other school or employment-related supports (i.e., tools of a trade).

Personal savings are deposited into a special savings account and the participants are required to save for a minimum of 6 months. This allows the youth to create regular, on-going, saving habits and complete a mandatory financial literacy component with their worker. Youth can save up to $400 in personal savings that can be matched at a rate of $3 for every $1 saved, making them eligible to access up to $1,200 in matched savings dollars. At the end of the project, the matched funds are not allocated to the youth but are instead released directly to a third party linked to the savings goal, such as the educational institution or landlord.