June 18, 2019

Every dream — saving for a rainy day or a special event, getting a higher education, taking a trip to the moon — starts with a sound plan and a realistic budget. To help the students and families in your 21^st CCLC program reach their dreams, you can introduce the basic concepts and tools that make up the foundation of financial literacy. By providing the right knowledge and skills, you’ll help young people and their families deal with financial realities that can get in the way of achieving their dreams.

It’s easy when you use the free financial literacy tools on Y4Y. Check out the new Click & Go: Building Financial Literacy to learn about financial concepts and how to embed them into activities. This learning experience will fuel your rockets as you explore the financial literacy universe.

The Facts

Fewer than half of Americans have a budget and track their spending, and nearly half don’t have enough cash to cover a $400 emergency such as repairing a car so they can get to work. One third of adults have no retirement savings. Many young people and adults don’t understand debt well enough to borrow wisely, and may find they have astronomical interest payments. Because out-of-school time programs help students make connections between academics and the real world, supporting financial literacy is a natural fit with 21^st CCLC activities.

The Learning

The good news is, you don’t need to become an accountant or banker to help students and families learn about finances. The financial literacy Click & Go includes two mini-lessons, three focused podcasts, tools and external resources. The video mini-lessons and the podcasts introduce and explore five concept categories: earning income, spending, credit and debt, saving and investing, and protecting and insuring.

The Implementation

What you learn about the five concept categories will help you use the Click & Go tools and external resources to start building financial literacy into program activities right away. For example, Financial Literacy Knowledge and Activities Across Age Groups has ideas to use with very young learners up through adults.

The Next Level

To go to a higher altitude of financial literacy, find one or more community partners to help. You might connect with accountants, bankers, representatives of consumer credit agencies, economics teachers or professors, or other financially savvy professionals. To start recruiting them, use the Financial Literacy Partnership Planner.

The Launch

With the Building Financial Literacy Click & Go, you and your crew are just 60 minutes from takeoff. Start the countdown now!