Our ability to adapt is beneficial in both our professional and personal lives. As families gear up for a return to learning, added stress will surely make the next few transition months challenging. As Charles Swindoll said, “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”
How does your credit union fit into the mix of encouraging positivity for its members and staff during such times of turmoil? Create outlets for fun, strategies for success, and opportunities for education to connect with credit union members and support their path forward through the pandemic.
Create Outlets for Fun
With fall knocking on our door, and families emerging from survival mode, a wonderful way to connect with credit union members is to create or encourage time together. Perhaps your credit union can publish a list of the safest top 10 things to do locally outside together, backyard games, or easy picnic ideas. Try the Goose Chase app to create a unique scavenger hunt that the community can access on a mobile device and complete at their leisure. Sometimes people just need a nudge toward a fun idea for their family time together to be more exciting and adventurous.
Strategies for Success
As students return to learning this fall, education will look different across the country. Some students are entirely remote, others hybrid, while some are returning to regular education. How each of these formats looks makes a major impact on back to school spending. For instance, new expenses for technology and masks will be weighing heavily on the minds of parents across the country.
College students may have unexpected expenses once they arrive on campus as well. Prepaid cards provide college students the ability to reload easily from a mobile device, set aside funds for necessary expenses, and secure a strong budget for their time away from home. Offering financial strategies for success, like prepaid cards, will help parents manage back to learning budgets and college student’s expenses while creating lasting financial management skills for the whole family.
Opportunities for Education
Parents are expected to work, teach virtual school, manage a household, and juggle extracurricular activities for their families. Parents are also trying to create outlets for their children and themselves to socialize safely. With the lines of professional and personal lives blurring somewhere, somehow something has got to give. It happens when families begin to lean on each other and divvy up the duties of each day.
This challenging time is one in which many children can learn and help with more day-to-day skills – earn their keep and possibly an allowance. Credit unions can offer family schedule templates, chore charts, and even create virtual financial education and budgeting workshops to help children learn financial basics. Families can instill solid financial wellness lessons for tweens and teens using prepaid cards. Teaching children to budget and set aside funds to learn money management skills is critical for long-term financial success; prepaid cards are a strong tool.
By offering a strong portfolio of products, services, and staying true to our commitment to community, credit unions have been able to provide a source of comfort and care for members during the pandemic. While keeping the people helping people philosophy front of mind, we will continue to serve and support our members through the pandemic and beyond.
By Naomi Anderson, Vice President, Prepaid for LSC
