Financial literacy is the ability to understand and apply personal financial management skills such as budgeting, saving, investing, and proper credit use, leading to an overall sense of financial well-being. In a recent survey of 2,000 Americans by The Harris Poll (2020), 89% of participants indicated their belief that a lack of financial literacy leads to an array of social issues, including poverty, lack of job opportunities, unemployment, and wealth inequality. Recent evidence suggests that financial literacy is generally poor among Americans overall, with the average US adult answering only 50% of financial literacy questions correctly (Yakoboski et al., 2022).
Since Personal Financial Managers (PFMs) work with service members from a broad array of racial and ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, income levels, and educational levels, it is important to understand the impact that financial literacy disparities may have on the military families they are serving. The 2022 Military Family Readiness Academy series focuses on identifying barriers to opportunity and equips family service providers with the skills to identify opportunities for social justice advocacy in their work.
The Academy series utilizes asynchronous courses and recorded panel discussions to address the intersections between engaging a social justice mindset as a family service professional and the ability to support the well-being of diverse military families. All courses and panel discussions are approved for Continuing Education (CE) credit via AFCPE for AFCs and Fincert for CPFCs.
Asynchronous courses are available as a bundle via the Thinkific platform and can be completed one at a time, at your own pace. Courses include:
- Course 1: Introduction to Social Justice Lenses for Family Well-Being
- Course 2: Family Service Providers: Recognizing and Responding to Inequities
- Course 3: Social Justice and Military Families
Recorded panel discussions are available on YouTube and can be accessed via the event pages.
