National Council for Financial Literacy
National Council of Financial Literacy for Students and Consumers
National Council of Financial Literacy for Consumers and Senior Citizens
To provide proactive, rather than reactive, financial education programs for Students, Consumers, Small Businesses and aspiring Women/Minority Owned Entrepeneurs through enhanced and innovative delivery strategies of existing quality financial content. Our presentations are focused on topics that directly affect the ability of participants to function efficently in basic daily financial situatutions and business development.
The
The “Council” wishes to improve awareness of the pitfalls of poor money management and significantly improve the financial awareness in areas of daily financial stability, by concentrating on topics that concern basic daily financial survival, “Back to the Basics” of good money management.
We have projects planned to encourge Student and Adult Volunteerism in community outreach programs; and also have projects planned to encourage business development, especially by Small Businesses and Women/Minority Owners.
Message from the President (7/09)
As a private education practitioner, as well as an entrepreneur, I have personally witnessed the deterioration of students’ understanding of basic financial concepts. Additionally, the current state of the economy and lack of the ability of authoritative bodies to control and correct the situation should give one pause about the effectiveness of the delivery of basic financial information.
Studies relating to financial literacy have shown little change in comprehension of basic financial principles. In fact, the complexities of current financial instruments have proven to be a challenge to the available course material and a more aggressive approach to delivery of the financial literacy subject matter may be necessary for the consumer.
Additionally, the current economic downturn is projected to extend for many years to come, ( The PEW Research Center has projected that 1 in 33 homes in the United States will face foreclosure by 2010 ), http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=37950 .
The destabilization of the real estate market, which was purportedly the backbone of the
One must wonder why current programs of financial literacy delivered to both students and adults have yielded results that have led to an economic crisis that is expected to equal that of the Global Depression of the 20th Century. All signs are pointing to the fact that this real crisis has been greatly underestimated and the very worst will be coming during 2009 – 2010.
As is typical in a crisis, priority will be given to immediate needs, with prevention efforts being pushed aside. With this in mind, the Council wished to find a way to aggressively “refresh” the method that basic financial education is delivered to participants, while keeping the content that exists intact.
Our innovation includes educators, financial experts and knowledgeable trainers, all of whom will be trained to present focused modules of basic financial topics. Rather than expend resources on developing new content that would be redundant; our focus will be on innovative delivery of basic financial information.
We have developed simple, but effective strategies that stay in tune with young adults and consumers and focus on current financial developments.
We have chosen to be proactive and not reactive to the student and consumer. We are not a counseling service, but rather an education provider to students and consumer groups. Obviously this crisis has la long reach and has stretched into ALL economic strata. All levels of income are affected, from the very poor, to the very experienced and very wealthy, as recently witnessed by the Madoff-Ponzi scandal. It is assumed that the wealthy will handle this event, albeit with some trouble, but not devastating effects.
The lower and middle classes blue collar workers however will have a much rougher time due to the rapidly failing economy and localized scams and fraudulent/misleading lending practices. Our young people and their parents are now receptive to financial education and must be instructed in financial survival in order to avoid a repeat of this financial debacle.
As in the delivery of a speech, comedy routine, homily or any type of instruction, the “Council” is of the belief that delivery of the subject matter is the key to retention. Without proper delivery, the subject matter loses it’s message and become lost.
This is the difference between the “Council” and other programs – we stress delivery, not just content.
We hope you take advantage of our programs and take the lead in your community with regards to Financial Literacy training.
Warmest Regards for a successful 2009,
Gail Sfayer, MS Ed