Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 4, 1 April 2010 — Increasing financial literacy for youth and families [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Increasing financial literacy for youth and families

By Lisa Asato KaWai Ola Hawaiian Community Assets is launching a statewide Family i Financial Educa- \ tion Initiative in April that has a goal of educating 500 youth and 1,000 families on hnaneial education over the course of the next year, said I HCA program coordinator Jeff Gilbreath. The Family Financial Education Initiative is based on the idea that all family members ean contribute to the hnaneial well-being of the household, he said. So in ■ addition to free homebuyer education workshops for adults and hnaneial literacy

education tor youth, the nonprofit will also be unveiling an updated Kahua Waiwai curriculum, whieh offers a culture-based financial literacy proaram for home-

buyers, said Gilbreath. The timing couldn't be better, he said, as April is designatedNational Financial Literacy Month by Congress and the program comes as families are facing tumultuous eeonomie times. "Everybody's feeling the pineh of the economy in their personal hnaneial situation, and if we ean provide free hnaneial education services, whieh is what we do, then that's exactly where we need to be," he said. "Families that are feeling the pineh don't have the money to pay for education on how to manage their money. So our idea is we'U provide it for free and reach as many people as we ean." In 2008, Hawaiian Community Assets unveiled its financial-educa-

tion handbook for youth, the 'Ōpio Edition, with the help of a grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The Kahua Waiwai program had also benefited from an OHA grant and was revived in 2008 after receiving the much-needed funding. When first released, the Kahua Waiwai curriculum won a Ford Foundation Leadership Award. The Family Financial Education Initiative also involves a Big Island Family Financial Education pilot program that will teach 25 youth fromYWCA in Hilo, in partnership with YWCA and Bank of Hawai'i. The youth will set savings goals, whieh will be posted with their photos on the HCA web site so others ean see "what youth in our

programare striving toward," Gilbreath said. That way donors and potential donors ean see that their money is helping to educate families and youth like these, he said, adding that all the proceeds for the month will be used to buy handbooks, and conduct free community workshops and foreclosure counseling services. HCA aims to help low- and moderate-income eommunities achieve and sustain eeonomie self-sufficiency, particularly Native Hawaiians. It has helped more than 6,000 families since it was established in 2000. "In the last three years alone, we've educated 2,037 prospective homebuyers and we've done one-on-one prepurchase counseling with

1,395 homebuyers, he said. "And 550 families have obtained a mortgage." Gilbreath said HCA's homebuyer education classes cover a weahh of

subjects in basic hnaneial education: how to manage money, budget, save and even how to conserve utilities in your household to save on electricity costs. The nonprofit's most popular programs right now are the youth hnaneial education, foreclosure prevention programs and its lending program, whieh in December 2009 had its best quarter ever its decade of existence, he said. HCA's lending arm, Hawai'i Community Lending, is the state's only nonprofit mortgage broker. It charges one point on its loans and the revenue generated from the mortgage brokerage supports HCA's education programs so they ean be provided free of charge, he said. ■

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Jeff Gilbreath uses poker chips in teaching his students how to make financial choices. The chips are used as plaee markers in exercises in whieh they make financial decisions, including deciding between buying a car or catching the bus, and shopping for clothes at Nordstrom or Ross. - Photo: UsaAsato