Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which provides no-cost financial education workshops to high schools, colleges, and youth organizations. These workshops are designed to teach students about asking tough questions about their finances and understand the decision-making process for smart credit decisions.
CARE partners with professionals in various financial service industries to provide real-world context to the fundamentals of personal finance; these professionals include bankruptcy judges, attorneys, accountants and financial planners. Based in 37 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico, CARE works best as a reinforcing guest speaker program for an educator’s existing curriculum or as a standalone presentation aimed at providing an intro to personal finance or paying for college. The materials are offered at no-cost in both English and Spanish and meet the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education as set out by the Jumpstart Coalition.
WHAT WE OFFER
- The Truth About Credit – This curriculum module teaches youth about how to use credit wisely and avoid potential pitfalls. The learning objectives include understanding the differences between credit and debit cards, the fees and costs of using credit cards, recognizing how the human brain plays tricks and influences spending, and the details of credit reports and scores. This module includes a number of extension activities that an educator can use in conjunction with the presentation: student note-taker guide, writing prompts, credit building self-assessments, and a credit product research project.
- Handle with CARE: Student Loans – This curriculum module teaches strategies to afford higher education and decrease costs of that education. It also offers precautions students and their families should take when borrowing for higher education. The learning objectives include identifying ways to reduce costs, describe the differences between scholarships, grants, and loans and the differences between private and public loans. Students will also learn to develop a logical argument for using student loans and the consequences of not paying those loans back. This module includes a variety of extension activities: note-taker guide, student loan debt case studies, future goals planning, career path research.
- Brush Up on Budgeting – This module teaches students to actively consider their spending and differentiate between needs and wants. It also encourages them to save money and track income and expenses through the use of a budget. Students should expect to learn how to understand and classify needs and wants, identify sources of income and expense, and develop a plan for saving and budgeting. Educators can couple a number of extension activities with this module including: a facilitated group discussion on spending and saving, worksheets and a group discussion on evaluating needs versus wants, worksheets on evaluating different budgeting methods, and a budgeting tool example sheet.
WHAT WE NEED
CARE is a growing 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to expand its programs into all 50 states by 2020. To meet this goal, CARE seeks help in a number of forms: educators to request presentations from their local CARE Chapters, volunteers looking to give presentations, individuals to make financial contributions, and corporations looking to build volunteer programs for their employees.
WHAT’S NEW
CARE’s Blog – CARE has launched a blog for financial literacy information, supplemental education materials, news and insights from experts across the financial education universe. You can read our latest post on our website: care4yourfuture.org/blog
CLEARINGHOUSE RESOURCES
Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) Program
Student Loans: Handle with Care
CONTACT INFORMATION
Ian Redman
703-894-5985
iredman@care4yourfuture.org
