2018 Financial Education Honoree - Pawtucket Credit Union
Pawtucket Credit Union
2018 Financial Education Honoree
Pawtucket Credit Union demonstrates its commitment to financial education through the values that guide our program, the scope of our initiatives, and the leadership we provide in the area of financial literacy. Our Financial Education Coordinator is a Certified Educator of Personal Finance (CEPF©) and her position is devoted to overseeing all of these efforts. We are committed to being the best local financial education resource for our communities.
We are mission focused to help our communities achieve financial wellness. We strive to be engaged and personal, meeting every learner where they are to improve their personal understanding and knowledge of financial management. Much of our financial education material is developed in-house to ensure we are responsive to the needs of our learners, while being respectful of their culture and circumstance.
We collaborate and maintain relationships throughout our communities with dozens of organizations ranging from area high schools, colleges, transition academies, junior high schools, summer work programs, housing authorities, SEGs, and other community organizations to provide financial education. Our work empowers learners to develop healthy lifelong personal financial decision-making skills.
From July 2017 – June 2018, PCU presented more than 300 face-to-face classes and workshops to more than 2,600 school aged students. Additionally, we presented more than a dozen presentations to 150 adult learners. Our efforts helped improve the financial wellness of Rhode Islanders from the age of 4 through 80+ years old.
PCU is the sole sponsor of our own version of a Reality Fair called Real World Day. Since 2004, Real World Day creates an authentic learning experience allowing students to see how financial literacy lessons play out in real life.
- Our 2018 fair served 576 students from 15 schools.
- Thirty-five PCU employees volunteered to staff the event.
We sponsor EVERFI for RI schools, helping teachers bring a state of the art, computerbased, financial literacy tool into their classrooms. The PCU sponsored platform provided 4,412 hours of learning during the 2017- 2018 school year for 856 high school students. Moving forward, we’ve expanded our sponsorship to benefit elementary school students within our service area.
We partnered with the RI General Treasurer’s office for the 2018 Job Shadow Day initiative. Earning an income is one of the six content areas for national financial literacy education standards; we were able to highlight credit unions and financial services as a career track for students in a day-long workshop at our main office.
Our commitment to serving our membership in this capacity drives us to be leaders in financial literacy efforts. Serving on the Board of Directors of RI Jump$tart Coalition and the Steering Committee for MassSaves network, we are integral to the planning, content delivery, and execution of financial capability conferences and teacher trainings. As the RI state delegate for the 2018 National Youth Involvement Board’s annual conference, we collaborated with other credit unions nationwide to improve and promote financial education. We championed the formation of RI Financial Empowerment Exchange hosted by the RI General Treasurer, and were the first at the table to share best practices.
As a community based credit union, our actions, values, and leadership demonstrate our commitment to strengthening the communities that we serve and building the financial capability of local youth and adults.
