Making money make sense

Partnering with local organizations provides relevant financial education across Twin Cities communities

Chaquanna Lattimore grew up in foster care and knows firsthand how difficult it is to learn life skills without a stable home environment. Today, she works with children and teens in foster care through the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities. Her team works hard to support their young clients, acting as trusted adults who can offer guidance.

“I love talking about money,” says Lattimore. “One of my superpowers is that I can make something that’s typically  uncomfortable, more comfortable.”

Because more than half of the team’s young clients identify as people of color, Lattimore says having facilitators and experts who are people of color matters.

With Extension’s Community Mentorship for Financial Capability Program, Lattimore and a small team offered financial education workshops about budgeting, financial goal setting, building credit, savings, buying assets and more for youth in foster care and the entire YMCA Youth and Family Services department.

“My biggest motivator is lifting the veil of mystery that surrounds money management,” says Sharon Powell, Extension family resilience educator. Powell is Lattimore’s mentor. She is based at the Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC) in Minneapolis. “Our financial systems are confusing, and sometimes, it seems like they were designed to be that way.”

Powell has mentored with the Extension program since it launched in 2013.

It’s a match

Extension finance experts are matched with small local organizations, helping them develop their teaching skills and financial knowledge to offer customized workshops in their communities.

Dung Mao, an Extension family resiliency educator based in Andover, mentored a team from the Karen Organization of Minnesota, which provides services to over 2,000 newly arrived refugees yearly. Refugees served typically come from Burma, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Southeast Asia, East Africa and Latin America.

And Tonia Brinston, an Extension educator in health and wellness and family resiliency — also based at UROC — worked with Sistas Helping in Neighborhoods Everywhere (S.H.I.N.E).

Brinston and S.H.I.N.E. leadership co-created age-appropriate, engaging personal finance workshops for girls in grades 5-12 and their families. She also helped raise funds for a tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the Southeast.

“My favorite part was witnessing their growth,” says Brinston. “When the girls realize they have a voice, that they can set goals and achieve them, it’s priceless.”