Why is financial education so essential for our community? Find out with Evan Flora, Community Engagement Specialist at Leaders Credit Union. In the newest episode of the Pocket Change Podcast, Evan shares how his team works together to serve students and employees in our community by providing them with financial wellness benefits.
“I think financial education is important because everyone deserves to be financially free,” says Evan. “Everyone deserves to not be stressed about their finances.”
Instead of members coming to a Leaders branch, the Community Engagement (CE) team goes to them. The main goal of the team is to provide free financial wellness benefits to employees and students across West Tennessee. Everyone on the CE team has to be or become a Certified Credit Union Financial Counselor, so they can be equipped to reach those in our community who need financial guidance. No day looks the same for a Community Engagement Specialist. Since many of our members can’t take time off work to receive financial help at one of our branches, the CE team often travels and work outside the normal hours of the credit union to meet the needs of these members.
To serve the younger members of West Tennessee, the Community Engagement team hosts Financial Reality Fairs. These fairs are one-hour simulations for students in elementary, middle, or high school that give them the opportunity to manage expenses that will occur in their future, such as a car payment, mortgage, etc. Having this experience gives the students realistic expectations of how to handle personal finances.
“And so if we can do just the littlest things of just teaching them little things that they might not have learned when they were younger, that can help them on their financial journey if they're an adult,” says Evan. “But also, if they're children, then we're laying those foundational pieces for them to really set them up for success as they get older.”
If you want our Community Engagement team to host a Financial Reality Fair or are interested in being a select employer partner, fill out an interest form. You can also email them at ce@leaderscu.com.
If you have questions about your own financial wellness, reach out to one of our financial champions.
Shea:
Hey, this is Shea.
Carrie:
And this is Carrie.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change podcast.
Carrie:
Where You'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest, and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
So, Carrie, people know us as the co-host of the podcast, but we've got some other team members that go out into the community and do what we do in our Community Engagement Department at Leaders, and so we're going to talk a little bit ab out that today.
Carrie:
Yes, and I'm excited about it because I love my job. I know you love your job too. We get the unique opportunity to serve our community. Our guest today is going to tell us a little bit more about how our community can contact us and learn financial wellness benefits.
Shea:
Yeah, so we're excited for the conversation today.
Carrie:
Can't wait. We're super excited to welcome our guest today, Evan Flora, Community Engagement Specialist here at Leaders. Welcome to Pocket Change, Evan.
Evan Flora:
I'm happy to be here.
Carrie:
Awesome. Well, we are happy you're here, too. So we, of course, know who you are and a little bit about you, but for our listeners, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background here at Leaders.
Evan Flora:
Yeah. So I'm originally from Frankfurt, Kentucky. So I am a big Kentucky Wildcats fan. Don't hold that me. Born and raised in Frankfurt, I came down to West Tennessee to attend Freed Hardeman University, where I graduated with a degree in Public Relations. While there, I met a girl who is from Jackson. So that's how I ended up in this location. We've been married now three years, so really excited about that. We have a dog named Mookie, after Mookie Betts the baseball player for the Dodgers. She's a Dodgers fan, I'm a Reds fan; house divided there. I've been at Leaders three years now, and when I started at Leaders, I actually started off as a universal banker or teller. After doing that for a couple of months, I got promoted up to marketing in the community engagement role. I actually am living out my childhood dream. So my dad, he actually works at a credit union in Kentucky. He's worked there my whole life. I've always heard about the great things that credit unions do for their communities, also just the great things that they do internally for employees. Because of him, I've always wanted to really work in the marketing department at a credit union. I really am living out my childhood dream here.
Carrie:
Here you are with us.
Shea:
This one's for you, Mr. Flora. Tell us more about what the Community Engagement Team does at Leaders.
Evan Flora:
The Community Engagement Team, CE Team, for short, what we do is we go around West Tennessee, and we really try to bring the credit union outside of the walls of our branches. We do that by going to different employer partners and really talking about leaders and the different products and services, benefits that we offer to the employees. That way we can help them on their financial journey. We really want them to achieve financial freedom. One thing that I think is really cool is all three of us are actually Certified Credit Union Financial Counselors; that's a long one. We go and we can really take a deeper look into their finances and really have those deep financial conversations and give them some really good advice on how to achieve that financial freedom.
Shea:
I think what we do in our team, we're able to be accessible to people because maybe they're working the same hours we're open. The Community Engagement team being able to go out and to employers and visit with employees and our members, hopefully really helps them to have access when they can stop and ask a question and learn more about who we are and what we do. I know no two days are the same. So what's a day in the life of a Community Engagement Specialist look like?
Evan Flora:
Yeah, so you said it. There is no day that is the same as a CE Specialist. I'll tell you, this week has been kinda crazy. We can come be in the office for a little bit, but then we were at the hospital on Monday, and then the next day we'll have to go somewhere early. We always tell people we don't have those traditional banking hours. We try to be as available as we can to any of our employer partners. I know we do partner with several industries, factories, and so they have different shifts. We have to be available for, you know, if we have to get there at 6:00 in the morning for that early morning shift, we will be there, a regular time during the day, or even if we need to stay late. I think that's another thing that really sets us apart is just being available for these employer partners. So today, for example, we showed up at the office, got ready, and we were set up at an elementary school for a couple of hours. Shea came along and relieved Carrie and I of what we were doing in the break room there. We went to lunch, and then when we came back, I had to go prepare because I had a meeting with another one of our employer partners about doing more stuff with them. So we went and did that, and now came back, and now I'm on a podcast.
Carrie:
You just never know what the day will look like.
Evan Flora:
Exactly, I never know. I always just look at my calendar the night before, and I'm like, "Okay, I guess I have to wake up early tomorrow." So every day, it's just different.
Carrie:
It's a lot of fun being able to be flexible and have a different schedule every day. No two days are the same for sure. Why do you think it's important to teach financial education to students and to our community?
Evan Flora:
I think financial education is important because everyone deserves to be financially free. Everyone deserves to not be stressed about their finances. And so if we can do just the littlest things of just teaching them little things that they might not have learned when they were younger, that can help them on their financial journey if they're an adult. But also, if they're children, then we're laying those foundational pieces for them to really set them up for success as they get older. If we can just teach them little nuggets of knowledge, then that's going to really help them along the way. I also think it's important because if you look at Tennessee's statistics when it comes to poverty rates, West Tennessee is significantly higher than Central and East Tennessee. So we have a lot that we need to do to help our communities, especially in West Tennessee, because if we can help increase the knowledge of these financial topics; like I said, a lot of people don't learn these things as they're kids. I lucked out. My parents talked to me about money, and I grew up in a Dave Ramsey house, so we had all his little informations, and if you see a credit card, run. So really I was taught the basics of finances at an early age, and that's not the case, and so I think that's why if we go to schools, employer partners, here in West Tennessee, it's super important because we want to help them not worry about their finances.
Carrie:
We can plant the seed, right?
Evan Flora:
Yeah, exactly.
Shea:
So Evan, one of the ways we teach financial education to students is through a simulation called a financial reality fair. Can you tell us more about what a financial reality fair is?
Evan Flora:
So financial reality fairs are one of my favorite things that we do because basically it's a one hour long simulation of what it's like to be an adult for a month. We have 10 different stations that we'll set up. Each table will have different things that they need to think about, to pay for when they're an adult. It'll be savings, clothing, childcare, housing, a car, all the different things that we know as adults, what we have to pay for. And so a lot of kids, though, they don't know. They're used to their parents just handling it all. "Why don't we go to McDonald's?" And parents will tell them, "We got McDonald's at home." So it's really good, though, because it teaches them what it's like to be an adult and all the different things they need to think about. Another thing that I love about reality fairs is you never know what kids are going to say once they get to the end. For example, we were at a school in Memphis, and one kid got to the very end. He saw how much he had. He was in the negative for his choices, and he just said, "Man, I just got to redo my whole life."
Evan Flora:
It's just one of those things. I think they're really great eye-openers for these kids because it shows them things are expensive in the real world. There's a lot of things that we need to think about, and it's better for them to mess up in these simulations while they're at school learning about it rather than once they get out into the real world and then they mess up for real. We don't want that to happen.
Carrie:
I mean, it truly is a transformative experience for our students. Speaking of that, how can a school or a group contact our team to set up a financial reality fair or a class?
Evan Flora:
Yeah. So if someone wants to contact us, there's two different things that they can do. They can either go to leaderscu.com/partners, we have our own personal website with all of our information on there; they can submit a form asking for a request for some more information or for one of us to contact them, or they can reach out to us via email at the letter C, the letter E, at leaderscu.com. Those are the two different ways if someone's interested interested in reaching out how they can do it.
Shea:
Evan, a part of your role is serving employers with free financial wellness benefits. How does that benefit employers in our region?
Evan Flora:
I think the main benefit that what we're offering is that it's free. Everybody likes free stuff. For any of our employer partners or anybody out there who might want to think about partnering with Leaders, that's the main thing is this is all free. Everything that we do, we're doing this for free. Because we are a credit union, we're able to offer this as an extended benefit of that credit union structure. Also, I think another great benefit is that we're able to go to people. I think we mentioned earlier how most companies are open 8:00 to 5:00. What times is leaders open? 8:30 to 5:00. It allows us to really go to them instead of saying, "Hey, you have to somehow come to us during your busy work schedule." Sometimes it's not as easy as going in and out real quick. They have different things they have to take care of, so it can take a while when they're in the branch. So I think it helps us going to them and providing them with any services as far as, if they want to open accounts. I know we hear almost every time we go somewhere like, "I've been meaning to go over to your branch, but I just don't have the time." So I'm like, "Well, this is why we're here. We're just trying to save you time. We're trying to do this on your time instead of on our time."
Evan Flora:
I think that's another great benefit. I also think it's beneficial because, like I said earlier, when we're speaking about different financial topics, another thing that we do is a lunch and learn. So we always I like to joke that any time there's food, the CE team is usually there. But it's true, I mean, anytime there's food, I'll be there. We'll set up lunch for people, and then while they're eating lunch, then we'll talk about financial topics. That's just another way for us to provide a time where they usually can get off work for at least 30 minutes, then we're able to come in and really help them on their financial journey. A lot of times afterwards, we'll have questions and really be able to answer more in-depth questions that might happen because of that conversation that we're having with people.
Carrie:
That's right. Okay, so Evan, I have one last question for you. If you were to find some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on?
Evan Flora:
Probably spend it on my wife or put it in a savings account for us to go on a trip somewhere. My wife and I, we love to travel, go different places, so I'd probably go towards a travel expense.
Carrie:
That sounds perfect. Well, thanks so much for being with us today, Evan.
Evan Flora:
Yeah, absolutely. Happy to be here.