Several Recognition Awards will be presented to New York credit unions during the New York Credit Union Association’s 2020 Annual Meeting & Awards Presentation, which will be held 9-10 a.m. on Monday, June 15. Today’s featured award is the Desjardins Youth Financial Education Award, which recognizes credit unions that demonstrate a significant commitment to youth financial education.

This year’s first-place winners include Community Resource FCU, ServU FCU and Teachers FCU.

Community Resource FCU is receiving the award for its Financial Education for Underserved Youth Including the Blind initiative, which supports the mission of teaching young people about personal finance and related topics both in and out of the classroom. Financial education is supported through a variety of partnerships presenting programs specifically aimed at young people. Topics include money recognition, using math skills to add and how to make change, which can pose challenges for blind or visually challenged students.

ServU FCU is receiving the award for its expanded Financial Literacy initiative offered to schools and youth organizations in the community. Volunteers opened two new student-run credit union branches, bringing the number to three, and taught 43 financial literacy classes that reached 1,120 students. Some of the classes were led by the student tellers of the credit union’s student branches, sharing their knowledge from being student tellers and passing it on to their peers through guest speaking in classrooms.

Teachers FCU is receiving the award for its Teaching Our Children Well initiative. In 2019, Teachers Federal Credit Union reached over 5,000 students between kindergarten and 12th grade with financial education presentations based on age. The most significant program for 2019 was The Berenstain Bears Visit the Credit Union presentation for elementary school students where the Berenstain children and their classmates tour a credit union branch, taking them to the teller line, vault, drive-thru window, coin counter and more.