Coming off the heels of being awarded their second straight Desjardins Award for Youth Financial Education, Central City Credit Union was honored yet again by being awarded a 2012 grant from the National Credit Union Foundation. The $12,240 grant will enable Central City to more than double their financial education efforts.
“We are excited by the opportunity to expand our program” said Holly Carter, Membership Development Specialist. “The grant allows us to grow, and allows everyone access to financial education.”
Central City Credit Union’s new program “Grow Your Green” will provide students, teachers, and adults access to financial education tools like: in-class presentations, online coursework , curriculum & testing, as well as downloadable materials, and seminars.
Central City already provides members with access to free financial counseling to aid members with a variety of financial issues. Kathy Brandl, Lending Supervisor and Certified Financial Counselor said, “We can help members design a budget, improve a credit score, or develop a plan to reduce debt.”
Central City’s “Grow Your Green” project is built around providing a website devoted to financial education, where teachers can share curriculum, and students can go to take quizzes, play games, and build a better understanding of financial literacy.
Paul Kurth (Central City Credit Union’s Marketing Manager) said, “We developed the idea this past spring to make financial education materials available to everyone, and the best way to do it is getting everything online. We purchased the domain namehttp://www.growyourgreen.com this past March, and we are working on developing the site and offering a login area for teachers and students to get materials, and complete testing. As we worked through the plan, we quickly saw that all of our compiled information would be useful for all ages, including adults.”
The tentative launch date for the project is February 1, 2012. The NCUF grant covers double the amount of annual supplies Central City Credit Union uses for its current financial education offerings as well as a stipend for a student intern to assist with the project.
Central City Credit Union is a not-for-profit, financial institution with over 23,000 members serving Adams, Clark, Portage, Marathon, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara, and Wood Counties and operates 3 of Wisconsin’s 109 in-school credit unions (SPASH, Marshfield HS, Nasonville Elementary). Central City was awarded a 2010 & 2011 Desjardins Youth Financial Education Award for their efforts teaching youth about financial matters.
