Adult Summit Feedback

MFEC Summit on Financial Education
Friday, October 21, 2011

ADULT GROUP BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

At the 2011 Summit, over 130 trainers, service providers, and content distributors in financial education were divided into 3 life span groups for two hours of sharing, discussion and brainstorming. The MFEC Central Office (CO) released the highlights in the December newsletter. The full synthesis of the notes from the Life Span groups revealed an emphasis on the needs for partnership, networking support and increased collaboration between members.

The CO has carefully reviewed member feedback from the last three summits. Member-driven leadership is in the process of outlining a strategic plan for working with members to bring a range of services on line by the end of 2012. These include a clearinghouse of resources, peer trainings, a public awareness campaign and a usable performance & standards assessment system tailored to the unique needs of the various market sectors.

Meanwhile, members are hard at work. While the MFEC has been collecting information informally for years, the new CO still has a lot to learn about the good work already being done by members and potential members across the state. The MassSaves.org site hosts the strong beginnings of a clearinghouse of information about member resources, services and news. The hyperlinks in the text below show areas where the web site captures work that members are already doing, as well as available resources, to make progress in the areas addressed by session attendees.

In the spring of 2011, MFEC will begin launching vehicles to help members update MassSaves.org postings about existing services and resources, even as the CO helps members plan and coordinate new activities and initiatives to address the gaps in programming and support. As you read the Summit feedback for the Life Span groups you are interested in, and click on the associated hyperlinks, please consider contacting the CO about programs or resources that should be featured on MassSaves.org. 

 

ADULT SESSION 1- CHARTING OUR COURSE: NEXT STOP MFEC

Question 1- OUTREACH: How do people find your financial education programs-or how do you find participants? Could MFEC help with this aspect of your work?

 

Question 2-COURSE FORMAT:  Is your financial education program delivered as part of a bigger program? Or do you offer stand-alone sessions? Who delivers these programs?

 

Question 3- AUDIENCE; what is unique about the population you provide financial education services to and why? What do you find most exciting/inspiring about this population? What is the biggest challenge in working with this population?

Challenges:

 

Question 4- SYNERGY: How can MFEC help to support/improve your financial education efforts? How can we as a “field” work more collaboratively?

 

Question 5- BEST PRACTICES: What financial education programs (yours or someone else’s) do you most admire and why/ How do you define a successful program?

  • Moving from Debts to Assets
  • IDA’s
  • Financial coaching/counseling
  • Financial literacy
  • Comprehensive programs

 

Success is:

  • Having the resources available to attain goals
  • When families achieve THEIR goals

 

Question 6- ALPHA/DELTA: What “works” with the way that your agency currently delivers financial education? What aspects of delivering financial education do you still struggle with?

Alpha:

 

Delta:

  • Recruitment
  • Budgeting
  • Attrition

 

ADULT SESSION 2- DELIVERING QUALITY: MEASURING SUCCESS, STANDARDS, ETHICS 

Question 1: Will a Code of Ethics/Code of Conduct give financial education programs more credibility?

 

            YES. It will :

  • Ward off people with hidden agendas
  • Keep it professional
  • Raise the program’s character
  • Gain more respect.

 

Question 2: Will it (a Code of Conducts/Code of Ethics) help YOUR financial education program? How?

 

            YES. It will:

  • Bring credibility to program.
  • Cover broad range of topics

 

Question 3:  Should the Code of Ethics/Code of Conduct be mandatory for all MFEC members?

 

            Yes. BUT:

  •  If agencies/organizations are required to have “personal finances” as their PRIMARY intent, it may not be possible to make mandatory (Breaks code of ethics #1).
  •  Many organizations already have codes in place and in many instances are more stringent/strict

 

Question 4:  What changes would you like to see in the Code of Ethics/ Code of Conduct?

  • Agreeing to be monitored
  • MOU’s Full disclosure of any affiliations
  •  #’s 2 &3 need to be clearer.
  • Don’t know what the state/national standards are.
  • #1 “primary intent” should say it specific to the “program”.

 

Question 5: Program: How does your program measure success? How would you like to measure success? What are the problems/ barriers to doing so?

Funders/MFEC: Are funders asking for more performance and/or success measures? How can MFEC help your program measure success? How can we measure success? Should we?

How to measure success:

  • becoming banked
  • movement in credit score
  • building assets
  • testing: before & after
  • quantifiable informationà also holds providers accountable.

Challenges:

  • Following up to determine if they have changed behavior

Funders:

  • Providing statistics to funders is vital

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