FSOS faculty wins grant to create financial literacy toolkit for minoritized youth

Joyce Serido, associate professor and extension specialist in Family Social Science, has been awarded a Mary T. O’Neill mini-grant from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE). She and her Extension colleague, Sharon Powell, will develop a financial toolkit to engage underserved youth in a process of financial self-discovery to raise awareness about the connections between the choices they make and the impact on their well-being. The team will partner with local youth serving organizations to pilot the materials in out of school programs.

“Money management is an essential life skill that youth will need to provide for themselves and for their families,” says Serido. “Although school-based financial education is helpful, youth are not always able to see how what they learn applies in their life.”

The financial toolkit will include training videos and activities to encourage youth to learn from both good and bad choices.  The activities will help youth make  the connection between the choices they make and the outcome of those choices and allow them to  earn badges for their efforts.

“Out-of-school programs offer an ideal context for youth to acquire financial skills and to understand why those skills are relevant in their lives,” says Serido. “Our goal is to help youth understand money beyond ‘buying stuff’ and encourage youth to make choices in line with their values and goals.”

Serido’s research agenda examines financial behavior as a bidirectional and unfolding family communication interactions about finances and how these interactions affect financial behavior. She is part of a national research team that has launched a longitudinal study of young adults in 2007 and has followed them through their college experience into adulthood. The APLUS study seeks to understand the dynamics between financial decision making and health and wellness.