Financial Empowerment
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) selected 30 organizations from the across the country to join the Your Money, Your Goals cohort. The cohort includes federal, state and local government agencies, organizations working in Native communities, social services, legal aid, faith-based and worker organizations, as well as organizations serving people with disabilities. The program focuses on helping people to reach their financial goals, bring cash flow budgets into balance, order and fix credit reports, reduce debt and avoid financial tricks and traps.
Participants received six months of training and technical assistance on how to use the Your Money, Your Goals financial empowerment materials to train community organizations staff serving individuals of highest need, including those in remote and hard to reach locations.
The National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA) is honored to be part of the Your Money, Your Goals cohort. NICOA will bring a unique perspective to this program by providing Your Money, Your Goals through the lens of Native culture and traditions, focusing specifically on how to reach and provide culturally appropriate examples and training for American Indian and Alaska Natives. NICOA plans to leverage its participation in the group by using the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit training as part of our Elder Equity program to impact and improve positive outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native elders, their families and communities. NICOA intends to deliver trainings in all 12 NICOA regions and will develop an ongoing, sustainable training program.
NICOA will deliver the Your Money, Your Goals: Focus on Native Communities guide and Your Money, Your Goals: A Financial Empowerment Toolkit in a “train-the-trainer” format, with the goal of developing an ongoing, sustainable training program. This guide includes information for users about the cultural and emotional influences on financial decision-making within Indian Country and the important considerations in Native communities where traditional community values may seem to conflict with some approaches to financial management.
Invitations are sent by NICOA to front line staff from entities, including the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), urban Indian, veteran and Indian youth organizations, Title VI directors and diverse elder advocacy groups.
The 2017 Your Money, Your Goals cohort included several large umbrella organizations that allowed CFPB to work with nearly 140 sites all around the country. With this reach, the cohort brought Your Money, Your Goals trainings to communities in 38 states and territories. The Your Money, Your Goals toolkit and training gives organization’s front line staff and volunteers the resources they need to help people they serve set goals, choose financial products and build skills in managing money, credit and debt.
For more information or to inquire about an upcoming Your Money, your Goals training, contact NICOA’s Elder Equity Project Coordinator at 505-292-2001.
