IRWINDALE, Calif. SCE Federal Credit Union Foundation, a non-profit financial institution dedicated to educating communities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas about personal finance, on Monday announced its new name Center for Financial Empowerment (CFE).
“After eight years of offering financial literacy training to teenagers and families, we wanted our name to better reflect what we do,” said George Poitou, chief operating officer of SCE Federal Credit Union and CFE board member. “Thousands of individuals have been empowered to improve their financial futures through our programs, which makes the new name a good fit for our organization.”
The non-profit organization was founded by $600-million SCE Federal Credit Union in 2005, to address what it saw as a wide spread need for basic personal finance education, especially in low-income communities. The Center for Financial Empowerment has formed plans to expand its outreach by 30% in the coming year.
California is one of 46 states that has not required students to take a financial literacy course in order to graduate in the past, and in the 2012 National Financial Capability Challenge, the state’s average student score ranked 44th.
“For every classroom of students we teach, there are thousands more who need to learn the life-changing money skills we can provide,” said Abby Ulm, manager of the Center for Financial Empowerment. “Our goal is to teach financial education to 5,000 people in 2014 approximately 1,200 more than our average for the last three years. This means 40 more classes and seven more real-world financial simulation events for our communities.”
