StellerVista Credit Union is looking for local partners to help solve a problem it hears about all the time: too many people across the Kootenays and Boundary were never really taught how money works.

With hopes to improve this in our region, the credit union opened applications for StellerFuture, a new community financial literacy grant program, with up to $40,000 available to the organizations that can build and deliver financial literacy in a local and relevant way.

The gap is not hard to spot. Branch staff get asked how a credit score really works, what a mortgage costs month to month, and whether a household can absorb the rent increase that just arrived. The skills to answer those questions are rarely taught in school.

The regular course of education does plenty of things well, but practical money skills are not usually one of them. And those are only the people who ask. In a region this spread out, many people cannot easily get to a branch or pick up the phone during business hours, and others would simply rather not bring their money questions to a financial institutions at all. StellerFuture is meant to reach them too.

StellerFuture hopes to help close that gap. Two grants of $20,000 are available, one for the East Kootenay and one for the West Kootenay and Boundary. The goal is to fund a trusted partner, or partners, who can work with the credit union to build and deliver a new type of financial literacy program in a more grassroots and locally relevant way, addressing everyday money skills like budgeting, credit and debt, alongside an honest look at the cost of living and housing.

“We’ve learned that in this modern era, people don’t necessarily want to learn about money inside the branch,” said Jody Burk, CEO of StellerVista Credit Union. “They want to learn it on their own terms, in their own ways, and so our hope is to find a strong partner who can help make this happen in various and modern ways.”

The grants come with more than money. Successful partners get subject expertise from StellerVista staff, promotion through the credit union’s seven branches and channels, and free access to its existing financial literacy library.

The invitation is open to non-profit societies, charities, educational institutions, Indigenous organizations and social enterprises in British Columbia, including groups that form specifically to take this on.

“The part we are most excited about is finding out who steps up,” Burk said. “Somebody out there is already doing this work in their community, probably on a shoestring, and we would love to meet them. If the best partner turns out to be a brand new group that forms just to make this happen, that is a great outcome too. This is an open invitation that we hope inspires a group to take that next step.”

Proposals are due October 20, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific and can be submitted by email. The full Request for Proposals, including eligibility and evaluation criteria, is available at StellerVista’s website.

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