Boys & Girls Clubs Of the Mississippi Valley’s Teen Center

photo 1A child who witnesses their parents’ negative experiences or lack of any interaction with financial institutions is likely to learn that lesson and apply it when they come of age by using alternative financial services like check cashers, wire transfers, payday loans, or money orders to circumvent financial institutions. Using alternative financial services instead of banks or credit unions is called being “unbanked” and there are many costs and dangers associated with it. Those who are unbanked pay to cash every paycheck.

Every month they have to pay at least a few dollars per phone, gas, electric, and internet bill. That’s four extra costs per month for basic utilities. These costs add up, stripping families of their income and reducing their ability to save, let alone make ends meet.
As a large portion of parents whose kids spend their time at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley (BGCMV) are unbanked, the Club saw an opportunity as they expanded into a new facility.

Innovation of Access

photo 3_0The BGCMV’s new Teen Center is a large modern facility with a computer lab, kitchen, breakout areas, recreation games, classrooms, and a credit union. Yes, a full service IH Credit Union location, with a curbside presence is open to the public at the Teen Center. BGCMV hopes to create positive banking experiences for both parents and children through this credit union.

Many of those who work with unbanked populations stress that past negative experiences with banks or never having walked through a bank’s front doors is part of the reason why many who are unbanked stay unbanked. Who to talk to first, how to interact, what you can and can’t ask for, all of these aspects of banking in person are second nature to those who grew up with banked parents, but are foreign to those who never stepped foot in a bank before.  Members who grow up inside the Teen Center, and their parents, will have new positive experiences with a financial institution, making it easier for them in the future.

A Comprehensive Approach to Financial Education
Teen Center Coming SoonTo prepare their members to make sound financial decisions as adults, BGCMV is taking a comprehensive approach to financial empowerment. They are working with local financial institutions, public school representatives, and financial education advocates to develop a curriculum tailored for their members.  Furthermore, teens that have successfully completed certain club programs will work in the attached credit union. IH Credit Union will train and employ 10-12 teenage members at a time to work at the site. This will be a great workforce development tool and provide a stepping stone into financial services careers.

Much like when local industry giant John Deere partners with Quad Cities Area schools to offer a STEM career track where students interested in engineering or math can find internships and potential employment at John Deere, the BGCMV hopes to pair financial education in local public schools with local credit unions and banks to offer a financial services career track. As with STEM career tracks, whether or not students end up at a specified company after graduation, those participating  will learn valuable skill sets to aid in their future financial decisions.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley has multiple locations within the Quad Cities (Rock Island, IL, East Moline, IL, Davenport, IA and Bettendorf, IA).

This is the second installment of a series of blogs on Innovations in Asset Building. The first installment on Texas’ Scalable Small Dollar Loan program can be found here.

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Top 4 Takeaways from the Assets and Opportunities Leadership Network Convening

AandO Network ConveningOn December 3rd and 4th, CFED’s Assets and Opportunities Network (A&O) held its first Leadership Convening of statewide coalitions, advocates, and service providers working to deepen the impact of asset-based strategies. For those who didn’t make it, here are our top four takeaways.

1) Understanding Scarcity is key to anti-poverty work
Plenary speaker, Eldar Shafir, spoke on the role scarcity plays in all of our lives, but especially for those experiencing poverty. Scarcity of money or time captures our minds, causing us to focus in on immediate decisions to the neglect of other important longer-term issues.  His book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much is a must-read for those of us actively working to end poverty. One big takeaway from his speech is that we need to consider the bandwidth cost often required of those experiencing poverty to accept program services. For example,  providing support services like child care, transportation, or assistance filling out paperwork can be a much more appreciative and valuable incentive for a person than a $10 gift card as it frees up cognitive capacity to focus on other aspects of their life.

2) It’s a good time to be a kid in Nevada
Treasurer Kate Marshall_shorterNevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall made news when she created a program to open up a Children’s Savings Account (CSA) for every child in a rural Nevada county, seeded with $50 from the state. She made even bigger news on Wednesday, telling the gathered crowd of asset building advocates that Nevada’s CSA program will be extended to the entire state. The new initiative is a $1.8 million per year, 3-year pilot, to fund and administer CSA’s for public school children in the state of Nevada.

3) Is 2014 the year of Children’s Savings Accounts?
In addition to Nevada, several other states are providing state-tailored CSA’s for their kids. David Rothstein of Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland shared information about efforts in Cuyahoga county. In the past, Cuyahoga county, which includes the city of Cleveland, had invested much of its economic development funds into place-based ventures, but with graduation rates in the teens, a new county charter required new people-based investments to improve the education outcomes for residents. Cuyahoga county is poised to launch a new CSA program to open up a savings account for every kindergartener in the county and seed each account with $100.

Colorado is taking a different route with a two-generational approach through a 3-year pilot using Colorado’s 529 college savings account. Next September, certain pre-kindergarteners will have a 529  account opened up in their name with a $50 initial deposit from the state, and the first $100 in contributions per year will be matched. Financial education is provided to both kids and their parents.

In Illinois, we are championing the creation of a statewide Universal Children’s Savings Account program based on recommendations from the Illinois Children’s Savings Account Task Force.

4) Showing up matters
CFED, and other national advocacy groups, need power to affect change. With hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of legislation each year to read, review, and understand lawmakers and their aides need to hear from organizations in their community about how policy effects people on the ground. Sometimes it takes a sit-down meeting with legislators and their staff to put the issues that are important to our communities  on their agenda.

IABG serves as the Illinois’ lead organization in the A&O Network. However, you can get involved in the national movement as well by joining the A&O Network as a lead local organization and joining IABG.

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