FACILITATOR’S
GUIDE
TO MONEY SMART
Money Smart – An Adult Education Program is a comprehensive, bilingual banking and credit education
curriculum sponsored by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The FDIC and ASPIRA share the same goal of empowering communities who
have traditionally had little experience with financial institutions.
Money
Smart is available for free in CD ROM from FDIC,
soon the FDIC will offer an interactive version on-line. We believe that the youth and adult participants
in these programs, especially those with little banking experience, can greatly
benefit from this type of general financial education.
The
purpose of this guide is to present a summary of Money
Smart
as a financial literacy tool and to suggest how it can be used to support
your programs. As part of our Community Wealth Development Initiative,
ASPIRA is authorized to make use of the curriculum, which is brand neutral
and is available at no cost. We encourage
our Associates to use Money
Smart to seek local sponsorship for financial education initiatives.
Money Smart can also be incorporated into Aspira’s other financial
literacy programs (such as the Insurance Education and the Entrepreneurship
Development programs).
WHAT IS MONEY SMART?
Money
Smart is a financial literacy
curriculum focusing on banking services and credit. It comes complete with an
instructor’s guide, participant’s guide (containing the handouts and worksheets),
slides and evaluation materials. The ten
modules are as follows:
1) Bank on It – an introduction to bank services
2) Borrowing Basics - an introduction to credit
3) Check It Out - how to choose and keep a checking
account
4) Money Matters - how to keep track of your money
5) Pay Yourself First - why you should save, save, save
6) Keep it Safe - your rights as a consumer
7) To Your Credit - how your credit history will affect
your credit future
8) Charge It Right - how to make a credit card work for
you
9) Loan to Own - know that you’re borrowing before you
buy
10) Your Own Home - what home ownership is all about
Currently,
Money Smart is available on a CD-rom that contains a series of PDF
files that can be printed and copied according to your needs. You can order the free CD Rom through the FDIC’s
website (http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/moneysmart/order.html
or request a copy from Susannah Pinckney at the National Office of ASPIRA
(email: spinckney@aspira.org).
HOW CAN WE USE IT?
I.
To
Seek Local Funding:
ASPIRA
trainers and staff will find Money Smart to be an excellent resource
since it provides a comprehensive introduction to major financial. You may
decide to approach local financial institutions to fund a series of financial
literacy workshops using the Money Smart materials. The following series
of steps may offer you some guidelines in terms of approaching potential
funders:
1) Identify local financial institutions that could
serve as grantees:
a. Leverage your current banking relationship;
b. Evaluate your staff’s contacts at other banks, credit
unions, credit card companies, savings and loans, lenders, investment or
trading companies, car dealerships that provide financing, housing lenders,
etc.
c. Determine who has an interest in reaching Latino
community;
d. Investigate who might have interest in improving
corporate image through funding community service.
e. Research whether institution has already developed
financial education curriculum or already runs own program (in this case, you
could offer to pilot their own curriculum).
f.
Determine which
institutions need help implementing bilingual programs or focusing specifically
on the Latino market.
2) Make the preliminary contact to discuss Money
Smart, your and their needs.
Emphasize that:
a. Aspira would use Money Smart as basis for
program, requiring no commitment from funder to create materials;
b. Aspira is currently implementing three major
financial education initiative supported through corporate sponsorship;
c. Aspira represents best means to reach Latino
community, who rely on CBOs to provide information.
d. Your Associate has an outreach to X number of people;
e. This program will benefit the funder in the short
term through enhancing reputation in community and providing indirect marketing
opportunity, and in the long term through creating a more financially-secure
customer base.
3) Ask to whom you should direct a letter of enquiry
that will summarize your ideas;
4) Ask for details on the formal grant application
process (deadlines, format, contacts, is the funding local, regional or
national?).
5) If your contact will not be the main recipient of
your letter or proposal, offer to copy that person. You may also wish to verify if your contact
might be able to provide you with updates as to the status of your grant;
6) You may wish to invite your contact to tour your
community center or school.
II.
To
Support Existing Programs
The Money Smart curriculum
is unbranded (i.e. it has no corporate sponsor) and we are able to use it in
conjunction with all of our financial education programs. Below are a few ideas
for putting Money Smart to work in your classrooms:
A) As preparation for you (the instructor):
Reviewing Money Smart will
help you increase your familiarity with financial topics that may be related to
your workshop, such as savings, credit and banking services. It will also help give you ideas for engaging
your participants or presenting complex information in a manner that is
interesting and easy to understand.
B) As additional material for your workshop:
Once you review Money
Smart, you may feel that the participants would benefit from you
incorporating a particular module, activity and exercise into your
workshop. Perhaps the curriculum you
will be using as your main source is incomplete or does not present a topic as
clearly as you would like. Or you may
wish to reinforce or spend more time on a topic through using supplemental
curriculum.
C) As additional sessions for your course:
Any of Money Smart’s ten
modules can be added to the lessons you were already planning to teach. They can be taught before, to help
prepare your students for the more complex financial topics to follow. For example, you might choose to cover
credit using Money Smart module 7 before beginning the Financial
Education Program on Insurance, since credit ratings are important factors
in all types of insurance.
Alternatively, you could pull in a few modules from Money Smart in
the middle of your course. For example, if you find that your group
of APEX parents have a number of questions about saving for college, you might
decide to use modules 4 and 5 to discuss budgeting and saving during the
next session. Finally, you might want to
add modules from Money Smart at the end of your course. If you have noticed either a lack of
knowledge or a great interest in particular topic that is covered by Money
Smart, you can invite participants back for a follow-up session.
However you choose to incorporate
the Money
Smart curriculum, we believe that it will benefit the Aspira Association
and our constituents. If you have questions
or would like help requesting materials, please contact:
Susannah Pinckney
Program Manager
Community Wealth Development
Initiative
The Aspira Association
1444 I
Tel. 202-835-3600 x 128
Fax. 202-835-3613
Email: spinckney@aspira.org