A GUYANA-DEVELOPED financial readiness framework was showcased at Black Women Sell Live 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia, as Outliers Zone Caribbean (OZC) seeks to expand its work from financial education into institutional financial preparedness for the country’s disciplined services.
OZC co-founder Athalyah Yisrael represented Guyana at the September 25 business intensive, which brought together approximately 1,000 Black women entrepreneurs.
Yisrael’s participation placed the company’s Operational Financial Readiness™ framework in an international business environment as OZC advances efforts to develop the model for wider institutional use.
Founded in Guyana in 2018 by Athalyah and Gabriel Yisrael, OZC has partnered with more than 44 organisations and provided financial education and financial security initiatives to more than 3,750 employees.
Its annual Teach A Child To Save School Tour has also reached more than 14,000 children, teaching foundational principles related to earning, saving, donating and investing, with the aim of encouraging responsible financial habits from an early age.
The company’s 2026 activities have increasingly focused on the financial preparedness of personnel within Guyana’s disciplined services, including the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Fire Service and Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
OZC met with Minister of Home Affairs Oneidge Walrond earlier this year to present its financial readiness solution for the disciplined services. The company subsequently engaged Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot and members of the Guyana Prison Service, while also conducting outreach with the GPF, Guyana Fire Service and GDF.
In August, approximately 100 GPF officers participated in a specialised financial readiness session conducted by OZC during the force’s Officers Personal and Professional Development Symposium.
During the session, officers assessed their financial positions and behaviours and began developing personalised Five-Year Financial Security Roadmaps.
More recently, OZC met with Major Edmond Blair, Staff Officer One, General One of the GDF, at Base Camp Ayanganna to discuss a proposed Financial Readiness Baseline Assessment involving 120 ranks.
The proposed assessment is intended to provide an evidence-based picture of the financial circumstances and preparedness of participating personnel.
According to OZC, the Operational Financial Readiness™ process begins with a confidential baseline assessment involving a representative cross-section of ranks.
The assessment examines areas including financial behaviour, debt and income pressures, emergency preparedness, saving and investment practices, retirement preparedness and other potential vulnerability indicators.
While individual responses remain confidential, aggregated findings would be provided to institutional leadership, giving an overview of financial readiness, dominant financial pressures and areas where additional intervention may be warranted.
OZC said the approach does not presume that financial difficulties cause misconduct or poor performance. Rather, it seeks to determine whether financial pressures exist within a workforce and provide leadership with measurable information that can form part of broader workforce preparedness considerations.
The organisation said this is particularly relevant to disciplined services, where personnel are required to maintain concentration, exercise sound judgement and make decisions under pressure.
Following a baseline assessment and review of the findings by leadership, the proposed model can progress to a 12-month Operational Financial Readiness™ Institutional Licence designed to support between 500 and 1,000 ranks.
The programme would focus on practical financial systems and the development and implementation of personalised Five-Year Financial Security Roadmaps.
Areas covered would include income management, emergency preparedness, debt management, saving and investing, asset development and retirement planning, with the longer-term objective of helping participants build greater financial security.
Yisrael said the Atlanta event came at an important stage in OZC’s development as the company works to strengthen its sales, technology, operational and implementation systems.
“For Outliers Zone Caribbean, representing Guyana in this room was bigger than attending an international conference. We carried a solution developed in Guyana into a global business environment and connected with women building significant enterprises and creating impact in different parts of the world,” Yisrael said.
She said the experience provided an opportunity to gain international business knowledge, exposure and relationships while positioning Guyanese-developed intellectual property within a wider market.
“The vision is to build and prove Operational Financial Readiness™ in Guyana, measure its impact and develop a model capable of serving disciplined services across the Caribbean and internationally,” Yisrael said.
OZC said its continuing work with the disciplined services is focused on moving financial readiness beyond general financial education towards a measurable institutional system that can provide leadership with greater visibility into the financial preparedness of their personnel while giving ranks structured pathways towards long-term financial security.