WASHINGTON (7News) — April is Financial Literacy Month. This month, a local historically Black fraternity is teaming up with Wells Fargo Bank to bring financial literacy classes to Washington, D.C. school students.
The Omicron Delta Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity developed their Alpha Finance Academy which aims to improve the financial health of young people across D.C.
This program has been going on since 2022. So far it is offered in 20 D.C. schools and has reached more than 300 students — and the students are assigned profiles.
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“Concepts such as budgeting, comparison, shopping, evaluating needs, versus wants,” said Ben James Brown with Wells Fargo Financial Health. “And these profiles will detail their career, their income, some students will be married and have children.”
Throughout the course, they will have to make money decisions and make ends meet.
“Your groceries, your housing, and transportation. How are you going to pay for insurance? What’s the importance of insurance? And as they go through these things, and at the very end of the simulation, they either have money, or they don’t. And we talk about that and why it’s so important,” he added.
In most schools across the nation, financial literacy is not in the curriculum. This program fills an important gap.
Data show that after the program:
- 88% of students reported that the simulation provided them with an increased awareness of making smart financial decisions
- 82% will consider their needs and wants before spending money
- 76% will begin to save some of their money
- 70% have a better understanding of how to manage their money
The goal is to reach 1906 students. That number is also the year that Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was established.
“My hope is that they have a fond appreciation for what it is that goes on with their caregivers, and that they are becoming wiser in the choices that they make,” Brown said.
You can get more details and sign up for the Wells Fargo collaboration with the Alpha Finance Academy online here.
Source: wjla.com
