Live & Local: Young Americans Bank Makes Financial Literacy Fun for Kids
In 1984, Young Americans Bank opened its doors with the goal of making financial literacy skills easier to grasp for young people through real-life experiences. Alongside providing checking and savings accounts that youth manage hands on, they teach the fundamentals of finances with a special blend of learning and play through interactive programs like Young AmeriTowne (Grade levels 4-6 ), International Towne (Grade levels 6-8), Youthbiz (middle school and high school students), and Money Matters (K-3, 4-8, 9-12). To this day, Young Americans Bank remains the only bank in the world just for kids.
Just recently, Young Americans Bank collaborated with our sister station, Rocky Mountain PBS, on the creation of a new friend named Scout. Scout is a pika, a small mountain dwelling mammal native with short, rounded ears similar to a rabbit and curious by nature. From using his TV skills to work at a TV station as he learns about earning and spending to making the move from his piggy bank to a bank as he learns about checking vs savings accounts, Scout works with kids to brush up on his understanding of money in an educational series of videos available on YouTube.
Abi Clark sat with Gaddie Layden, the SVP of innovation and growth at Young Americans Center to learn more about their various programs, share some real life testimonials from kids who have gone through them and are now grown up, and upcoming youth entrepreneur-run Holiday Markets, the first in Cherry Creek on 12/06 at 3550 East First Ave and the second in Windsor on 12/13 at 900 Main St.
Gaddi Layden: “The skills that they learn within their programs, within being a young entrepreneur and owning their own business, the confidence, the public speaking, the self-advocacy are incredible. Those soft skills are just as powerful as you being an entrepreneur or not. Just advocating for yourself and having a voice in life are amazing.”
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