For the second consecutive year, SPIRE Credit Union has been honored with a 2016 Desjardins Adult Financial Education Award. The award, sponsored by the Minnesota Credit Union Network (MnCUN) and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), recognizes leadership within the credit union movement on behalf of adult financial literacy.

From July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, the SPIRE Adult Financial Literacy Program reached a record-setting 640+ adults over 38+ classroom hours. Since its inception in 2008, SPIRE has reached 3,600+ individuals over 360+ classroom hours. Education was offered on a variety of financial topics including money management, budgeting, and skills necessary to for maintaining overall financial well-being. SPIRE worked with a variety of organizations in their outreach efforts: the Mora Workforce Center; Goodwill-Easter Seals; Minnesota Family Involvement Council, Central Minnesota Chapter of Credit Unions and the Minnesota Credit Union Network.

“SPIRE’s Adult Financial Literacy Program is based on our belief that, it is our duty to teach people in our communities the financial skills necessary to be successful throughout life,” says Dan Stoltz, President/CEO of SPIRE Credit Union. The Credit Union’s winning entry will advance to the national competition, where it will compete with financial education projects from credit unions in other states.

The award is named in honor of Alphonse Desjardins, the founder of the North American credit union movement, who established the first “caisse populaire” (people’s bank) in Quebec in 1900, and helped establish the first American credit union in New Hampshire in 1909. Desjardins was an ardent believer in the value of teaching children to save, and he promoted the idea of in-school savings programs.