Educators & Youth Organizations

America Saves Week, February 25 - March 2, 2013, is an annual opportunity for organizations to promote good savings behavior and a chance for individuals to assess their own saving status.

Each year, hundreds of Educators and Youth Organizations motivate youth and students to join as a Young America Saver on-line and to take action during America Saves Week by opening or adding to an account at a local financial institution. This opportunity allows students to commit to a savings goal and identify specific plans to achieve. Check out the free resources below to help youth save and sign up to participate in this nation-wide movement today.

Click here to see the full list of participating organizations.

The Week is an Opportunity to:

Focus on financial action.
Motivate students to open and save regularly in a wealth building account at partner financial institutions.
Engage students through Young America Saves presentations, financial education sessions, and other activities that encourage them to join as a saver and take financial action.
Hold a competition between students.
Sign up students as Savers online through the Young America Saves website where they can make a commitment to themselves to save for an identified goal.

Ready to Help Others Save?

Step 1:
Sign Up Step 2: Download
Participation Kit Step 3:
Download Materials

Did You Know?

Student interns employed by Chicago organizations during the summer until recently were paid by check. The majority of these first time workers used check cashers at a cost of $5 per check and did not save anything.
Nearly 73 percent of students surveyed have resorted to at least one "risky" financial behavior, such as maxing out credit card limits or not paying bills on time
Nearly one in five of those surveyed has used some extreme strategy for meeting day-to-day financial needs, such as taking out payday loans or using one credit card to pay another card.

More Resources

eXtension

Children are not born with “money sense.” Children learn about money by example and experience, beginning at a very young age. Parents are an important influence on what and how children learn about money. It is never to early to start teaching sound money management skills. Begin teaching basic principles of money as soon as children can understand that money is needed to buy the things they enjoy. Learn More.

High Schools

National Endowment for Financial Education provides NEFE High School Financial Planning Program. A Program About Managing Money That Turns Learning into Action!

Motivating College Students to Save – A Competition Model

Last year, the University of Illinois Saves campaign developed, in partnership with America Saves, an internet-based communication and engagement strategy for college campuses to reach faculty and students. The pilot program encouraged and motivated students, faculty, and staff to set a personal savings commitment and make a simple plan to achieve it. The pilot demonstrated significant results in participation and sustainability. Click here for more information.

Training Young Adults To Save At Work

America Saves and the FDIC are promoting saving at work for young adults. Low-income youth receiving their first paychecks are more likely to utilize expensive non-bank financial products and are less likely to have a checking or savings relationship with an insured financial institution. This effort seeks to change that behavior by introducing young people to the best system and strategies to save effectively – direct deposit and saving automatically. By offering this proven methodology to first time wage earners we seek to build a habit of saving and effective money management at an early age to last a lifetime.

“The Young America Saves Employer Initiative” has been tested and developed in Chicago over a two year period with several employers of youth during the summer months offering direct deposit, encouraging or mandating a minimum to be saved out of each paycheck, a no-fee savings account with a partner bank, and ongoing financial information to support savings behavior.

223 summer interns at the Chicago Park District (CPD), the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) and the Chicago Summer Business Institute (CSBI)
185 interns set savings goals, made a commitment to save monthly and joined Young Illinois Save. (commitment rate of 84%).
Interns pledged to save, in total, $8,140 monthly and $97,440 annually. Average commitments were for $48 per month and $578 annually per intern.
The most common saving goal was for education (at 42%).
In total, over 191 interns opened new savings accounts or arranged to have their paycheck deposited into an existing bank account.
99.5% of students agreed that they gained information that they could use in the future; 97% of students sampled agreed that they were motivated to save and 97% of students agreed that they learned something new through this programming.

For more information about this program contact:

George Barany
Director, Financial Education and Youth Saves
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Encourage people to take financial action through saving, debt reduction, and wealth building!