Community Mentorship for Financial Capability Program

2011Minnesota Council on Economic Education

University of Minnesota ExtensionIn partnership with generous funders

Community Mentorship for Financial Capability Program 2011

• Empowering individuals and families with the

financial knowledge they need to survive and thrive

• The Community Mentorship for Financial Capability Program will help community organizations better serve their clientele through in-depth training on personal & family finance topics and how to in turn teach these topics, built on a mentorship model

How?• We recruit community partners who have a mission to teach

financial capability to their clients. Often these agencies have language skills, cultural understanding or access to their clients that is required, but the agency wants training, curricula, and mentoring. Excellent partnership.

• We train our community partners on financial capability topics and how to teach them

• We are committed to “go home” with you to plan, promote, teach, evaluate, and report teaching one six-hour financial capability classes

• August check in to hear how it is going and provide additional training at a conference

• Agency and extension educator implement a second six hour – this time with agency taking the lead in teaching

• Final Report• Lasting partnership in building Minnesota financial capability

Shift focus from financial education to financial capability

• Financial capability emphasizes behavior change in addition to knowledge gains.

No standard definition of financial capability exists, but most definitions

tend to include the following elements:

• Being able to cover monthly expenses with income • Tracking spending • Planning ahead and saving for the future • Selecting and managing financial products and services • Gaining and exercising financial knowledge

Most effective interventions strive to be:

W

Let’s get to know you• What is your name and where do you work?• How will you or your agency effectively use

this educational intervention? Effective interventions strive to be:

Training

Mini-Grant Proposal

Objectives is the foundation.When done, participants will be able

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Budget• 6 hour education for a minimum of 15

participants… How would you allocate $1,500?– reduce barriers for participants to attend class or– Provide incentive to attend class (all classes)– Insure evaluation completion: pre-assessment,

post-assessment, & follow-up

More budget

• Go back to your objectives…. How does how you want to use your money relate to your class objectives?

• How can how you use your $1,500 reflect to class participants “financial capability”?

Local Implementation/Mentoring

• Opportunities

• Challenges

Evaluation• Go back to your objectives – what did you want your

participants to learn or be able to do after the training?

• How long before you will be able to tell if they have learned something new or they have changed their behavior?

• Pre-assessment• Post-assessment• Follow-up

Report

• Who needs to know about your experience – both successes and challenges?

• What do they need to know?• Why do they need to know the information?• What do you need to know as an educator,

facilitator, administrator, an agency?

How would you implement?

• Find a funder – who? Do you need one? Why?• Recruit participants• Plan – objectives, activities, evaluation• Implement education• Evaluation• Report• Celebrate

Thank you

• Trish Olson, University of Minnesota Extension– pdolson@umn.edu

• Rosi Heins, University of Minnesota Extension – heins002@umn.edu

• Phyllis Onstad, University of Minnesota Extension– onsta003@umn.edu