NEW YORK-The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions has launched a program that aims to increase the number of young people working within the CU movement.
Pamela Owens, VP of programs for the federation, explained that the Cooperative Finance Leaders of America (CFLA) program is the result of a $125,000 grant from Citi Community Development (funded by Citbank), and will place 11 fellows in mentor credit unions and elsewhere in the CU movement with an eye toward expanding community outreach and attracting more young members.
"We want to expose Millennials to the credit union movement," said Owens." It's a wonderful place to work and a wonderful place to save. We want more people to know about credit unions as a whole and definitely about the CDCU movement and the important role it plays in society, especially for low- and moderate-income communities."
The 11 fellows also receive a rigorous training course put together by the New School's Milano School of Public Policy and the Community Development Finance Lab. The CFLA program will run through February 2014, and Owens said the hope is that organizers can increase the scale of the program in the future. The fellows receive a stipend paid for out of the grant funds from Citi.
"There seems to be a disconnect between the work that credit unions are doing and Millennials, and we think this program bridges that gap," said Owens.
Fellows Will Be Tracked
The Federation plans to track whether or not the fellows stay within the CU movement-or at least the community development finance movement. Each individual fellow also has an action plan he or she has set up with their credit union focusing on topics such as technology or marketing and outreach to various fields of membership.
"A big component of what the fellows will be doing is that a lot of them will be focusing on growing their membership in community outreach," explained Clarissa Ritter, director of marketing and communications for the federation. "If you're able to succeed at bringing in younger members that are in your prime borrowing years, you will see your loans go up."
Owens said that she believes this program is unique to credit unions. "I don't know of a similar program in the credit union movement," she said, though "there are some similar ones in the non-profit movement," such as Teach for America.
When the program is done, the Federation plans to track the current fellows, while also beginning the recruitment process for a 2014 class.
