HARRISBURG, Penn. —While most financial reality fairs hosted by credit unions are for students, the CrossState Credit Union Foundation joined with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and Pennsylvania Department Banking & Securities as part of an event held for 70 prisoners reentering society.
The event was held as part of Pennsylvania CareerLink and focused on lessons in how to build a budget and apply financial concepts to develop a strong financial
foundation.
Participants received and familiarized themselves with a career before visiting booths to build a balanced budget, the foundations said, adding that booths included housing, transportation, food, and other essential and non-essential expenses.
Financial counselors reviewed participants’ budget selections and guided them towards additional savings or debt reduction, the foundation added.
Builds On Earlier Work
The CrossState CU Foundation said the specialized Financial Reality Fair builds upon its original groundwork of hosting five simultaneous fairs for reentrants across Pennsylvania, and added that it “is reinvigorating these community events with a variety of stakeholders in the spirit of credit union’s unique people helping people philosophy.”
Forty-three volunteers from 10 New Jersey and Pennsylvania credit unions, representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Banking & Securities, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania State Parole Office, Pennsylvania Treasury, PHEAA, PHFA, and Rep. Tom Mehaffie (R-Dauphin) showed their support of financial education at the event.
‘Making an Impact’
“We are so pleased to work with the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to help serve folks in the reentry program,” said Sue Ward-Diorio, executive director of the Foundation. “Our credit unions were excited to provide guidance on developing a budget, but they ultimately want to support these folks as they return to their communities. This event was one of those moments where we experienced how credit unions make an impact in the community.”
Participating CUs
Credit unions that were involved included:
- 1st Ed FCU, Chambersburg, Penn.
- Affinity FCU, Basking Ridge, N.J.
- Belco Community Credit Union, Harrisburg, Penn.
- Clearview FCU, Moon Township, Penn.
- Lanco FCU, Lancaster, Penn.
- Service 1st FCU, Danville, Penn.
- TruMark Financial Credit Union, Fort Washington, Penn.
- UECU, Wyomissing, Penn.
- Vizo Financial, Greensboro, N.C.
- York Educational FCU, York, Penn.
Just Because It’s Autumn Doesn’t Mean Falling for Schemes to Overcharge You for CU Industry News. Instead, Try This Crisp Offer
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more. So stop paying those bank-fee-like subscription prices from other so-called “news” publications!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?