Financial literacy is at the core of healthy families and successful workers. A basic understanding of money and how it works in today's society is crucial to a person's ability to develop assets. And developing assets, no matter how much, is the first step in the process of introducing a person into the financial mainstream. This is where individuals become self sufficient, develop healthy consumer habits and eventually determine their future and the future of the community in which they reside.

There are many aspects to financial literacy.

• Money flow and asset creation: Customers learn how money works, how it is recycled into the community and the importance of saving and accumulating assets.
• Basic banking: Customers learn how to open and maintain savings and checking accounts and how to choose the financial institution that will best meet their needs.
• Credit and debt management: Customers understand what credit really means and its importance in career advancement. Information should include how to establish a good credit history (or repair a bad one), create and live within a budget and manage debt.
• Homeownership preparation: Customers learn what to look for when buying a home, how to deal with mortgage lenders, and discover affordable homeownership programs available to low-income workers.
• Micro-enterprise: Your customers want to go into business for themselves but don't know how to do it? Various programs are available to train low-income workers how to develop a business plan, establish a line of credit, etc.

Resources on Financial Literacy
Elements of Effective Financial Literacy Training discusses the keys to eight critical elements for crafting a successful financial literacy program. Written by Inger Giuffrida, this seven-page Word document includes some very good advice.

Lifetime IDEA Initiative is an outline of the key elements of individual developments accounts (IDAs) as well as individual development education accounts (IDEAs). Created by Lifetime, a group of student mothers who completed their college degrees while raising children on welfare, this 15-slide presentation is offered here in a five-page Word document.

"The Budget and Credit Workbook," created by Cora Fulmore and published by the Budget and Credit Center, includes a variety of handy tools, available here.

Making Your Money Count is a course book that covers various aspects of financial literacy, including one on how to file your taxes and take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Resources on the Earned Income Tax Credit
Help Workers Boost Paychecks: The Earned Income Credit Campaign 2001, created by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is an in-depth information kit that explains the ins and outs of the EITC. This 39-page PDF document is a great resource for community-based organizations to reach out to their customers.

Helping Workers Boost Their Paychecks: A Guide to Earned Income Credit Outreach Strategies is a 36-page booklet in PDF format that provides 12 key strategies for how a community-based organization can design and implement a campaign to promote the EITC.

Give Your Paychecks a Boost is page on the website of The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities where you can order free flyers, available in a variety of languages, that explain the Earned Income Tax Credit.