HarborOne wins State Award for Youth Financial Literacy
The Massachusetts Credit Union League recently announced that HarborOne Credit Union was this year’s winner of the Massachusetts Desjardins Youth Financial Education Award for credit unions in the assets category of $250 and higher. HarborOne’s application will now be submitted for the national competition.
The award, named in honor of Alphonse Desjardins, recognizes leadership within the credit union movement on behalf of youth financial literacy. Desjardins founded the first “caisse populaire” (people’s bank) in Quebec in 1900 and helped establish St. Mary’s Bank, the first American credit union, in New Hampshire in 1908. He was an ardent believer in the value of teaching young children to save.
Among the youth financial initiatives included in the HarborOne application were: a branch at Brockton High for the past 25 years; sponsorship of the State Treasurer’s “Savings Makes Sense” program; over a decade of classes in personal finance to the bi-lingual students at Brockton High; Participation in Financial Literacy games with Randolph and Avon High as well as other youth programs. HarborOne was also instrumental in bringing the nationally award-winning Credit for Life Fair to Brockton High in 2001. In 2009 the 9th Fair was offered and over that time well over 2,000 students have attended. HarborOne also actively encouraged other geographies to replicate the Fairs and this year they were run in over 40 venues all over New England. HarborOne has been a strong advocate of mandatory financial literacy classes in all public high schools.
