VISTA Financial Literacy Volunteer Coordinator

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About University of Arizona

Location:

650 N Park Avenue, Room 425G, Tucson, AZ 85721, US

Mission Statement

The Take Charge America Institute’s mission is to create research-based educational outreach programs to improve financial literacy and help consumers to make informed financial choices in today’s complex markets. A major endowment gift to the University of Arizona in 2003 from the credit counseling agency Take Charge America established the Institute. Located in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, the TCAI has focused its efforts during its first five years on educating young people how to manage their finances and make informed choices as they move into adult life.

Description

The TCAI, in collaboration with Arizona Cooperative Extension, supports an array of financial education outreach programs including the Take Charge Cats, The Arizona Financial Face-off, Building Financial Security, and the Early Childhood Financial Literacy Lending Library.

The Institute’s "Take Charge Cats" program trains university students to be financial education ambassadors who present financial education seminars each semester in high schools and middle schools across the greater Tucson community. Each year the Institute organizes and hosts a personal finance case study competition that brings several hundred of high school students to campus to analyze true-to-life cases of household financial distress and compete to offer the best solutions.

Building Financial Security is a 4-part series that takes an in-depth look at managing money offered through Cooperative Extension. Where Does Your Money Go? is a two-hour basic personal finance workshop to get people thinking about their relationship with money.

The Early Childhood Financial Literacy Lending Library is a portable kit with children’s books and parent tip sheets located at select Early Childhood Education Centers to help parents of young children (ages 3 to 5) instill an understanding of money, the difference between needs and wants, and making choices, using children’s storybooks and supporting materials.