Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Asset Message of the Week

When I was researching some topics to write about for this week’s Developmental Asset message of the week, I came across a very interesting program called Bank It. Given that “Black Friday” and the idea of “spending” is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the Thanksgiving weekend holiday this appears to be pretty timely.

Bank It is a collective program of Capitol One and the Search Institute (the founder of Developmental Assets) which works to improve financial literacy of teens and parents using a strengths based approach. The program “affirms that families who talk about financial challenges, values and choices together are stronger and make better choices”.

Some interesting facts that are posted on the site regarding financial literacy and families included:

• The average financial literacy score for high school students is an F
• 24% percent of teens say their parents discuss money management with them
• 75% of adults say it's important for adults to give financial guidance to youth but only 36% do it.

The Bank It site is separated into 3 targeted sections focusing on teens, parents, and workshop leaders. Each of the three sections focuses on their “12 money topics” and aims to teach teens and parents how to make positive money choices; become more comfortable with talking about and managing money; discover how to avoid common money traps; identify steps needed to reach financial goals and find resources to help them do it…..all while embracing the 40 Developmental Assets! If you are a youth worker/educator, you can also find a FREE downloadable curriculum.

You can find Bank It by going to http://www.bankit.com/. Enjoy.

For more information on Developmental Assets please visit http://www.search-institute.org/ and don’t forget go to http://www.assetpromise.org/ and make a promise to support Middletown youth.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday. I am absolutely thankful to be in the position to give back to this community which has given me so much growing up and to have the support of wonderful people like you.

Best wishes,
Justin

1 comment:

Ms. Jukins said...

Keep up the great work, Justin. I'm sure I speak for many in Middletown who are thankful for you.