New Resource Guide Available for NCUF Financial Education Report

Guide is Companion to NCUF’s Landmark Report that Highlights Impact of CU’s Financial Education Efforts
 

The National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF) through its REAL Solutions™ program has released a resource guide for its free online report entitled “Credit Unions: Focused on Financial Capability Across the Nation,” which was released earlier this year. Both the report and new companion piece are the result of an almost yearlong data collection effort by NCUF with the help of state credit union leagues to illustrate how the credit union movement is making a difference through financial education and counseling.
 
The new resource guide is designed to assist credit unions and others to access resources, information and curriculum already created to help them offer even more financial literacy programs.
 
“The report was the ‘what’ and the new resource guide is the ‘how’ and ‘where’ for credit unions,” said Lois Kitsch, NCUF National REAL Solutions Program Director. “When using this guide, think of how your credit union can move members to the next level. Financial education is the credit union output, but consumer behavior change that leads to financial security is the desired result.”
 
To download the new resource guide as well as the full report at no-cost, visit realsolutions.coop (all files are in .PDF format).
 
“Credit Unions: Focused on Financial Capability Across the Nation”
The National Credit Union Foundation through its signature program, REAL Solutions, issued a cumulative data report in early 2012, entitled “Credit Unions: Focused on Financial Capability Across the Nation.” Included in the report were a series of intervention techniques used by credit unions to provide financial counseling/education to their members. The report’s intent was to quantify the depth and breadth of opportunities credit unions offer members/consumers to help them gain financial decision-making skills.
 
This new resource guide is intended to broaden and extend the intervention techniques described in the original report. Each method of financial counseling/education gives examples, additional resources, and further information and tips to help credit unions expand their current education programs or introduce new ones.
 
REAL Solutions – Demonstrating Credit Unions’ Positive Impact
NCUF’s report, “Credit Unions: Focused on Financial Capability Across the Nation,” and this new resource guide are among several ongoing projects to assist credit unions with the development, measurement, and implementation of educational programs. NCUF and REAL Solutions plan to continue to gather and publish data about credit unions’ financial education provisions. This data collection and measurement will be used to demonstrate the positive impact credit unions are having on members, consumers and their communities.
 
Questions
For questions on either the resource guide or the report itself, please contact Lois Kitsch at lkitsch@ncuf.coop  or (407) 616-2409.