Youth Services

Youth Learn financial basics

The NeighborWorks® HomeOwnership Center (HOC) initiated the Youth Financial Empowerment Program (YFEP) to teach the basics of personal finance to young people while they are developing habits and attitudes about money that will influence them for the rest of their lives. YFEP is based on the philosophy that managing money is as important as earning it—and that effective money management results from disciplined behavior, which is most easily mastered if learned early in life.

Managing Money

How to earn, save, spend and invest money is one of the most important skills today’s young people can learn. With America’s high number of personal bankruptcies, increases in consumer credit card debt, and inadequate retirement savings, the need to teach financial literacy in the nation’s high schools is critical, according to the National Endowment for Financial Education. In addition, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (http://www.jumpstart.org) has also stated that the average student who graduates from high school lacks basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. Many are unable to balance a checkbook and most simply have no insight into the basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and investing. In response, the NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center (HOC) initiated the Youth Financial Empowerment Program.

Youth Financial Empowerment Program

This series of six one-hour classes provides teens with a greater understanding of, and ability to manage, their personal finances in the areas of goal setting, budgeting and saving. The class teaches the basics of personal finance to young people while they are developing habits and attitudes about money that will influence them for the rest of their lives. For more information about the program, please contact the NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center at 805.659.6868.