Here's some quick hits at what I'm involved in right now to help improve financial literacy

1) I'm hosting a coffeeshop PF Checkup every other month. I'll be putting up the template that I use online soon (hey JD, you should pimp it!). It takes 15 minutes to present 5 key concepts, and then I lead a discussion about money and issues for whomever wants to talk. It's alot of fun.

2) I contacted the Office of Financial Education and was invited to the Financial Literacy Commission meeting last Month. A post about this meeting will soon be up on GRS.

3) I presented on involving web2.0 technology in the financial literacy community to promote activism. To this, I'm talking with the Maryland and Virginia Chapters of Jumpstart and hopefully will be presenting at their next meetings

4) I'm planning on presenting a talk on "the urgency of now" to college students in my area, about the impact of saving money early in life.

5) I'm working with a group of individuals to produce a pilot program to engage elementary age school kids in learning about financial literacy in a fun way. This is inspired by "Schoolhouse Rocks"

I strongly encourage community members to find time in their schedules to get involved in some micro level PF project! Watch this space.

Here's some updates.

I went to our local citizen's association meeting last night. I guess I impressed our local school board official, so now I'll be talking with him and our superintendent on creating a financial literacy curriculum. Further, I'm scheduled to work with another educational official to bring PF basics into our Latino community. I speak some spanish, but not enough to be fluent, so he said he'll translate my knowledge if I bring em. So that's a good community effort. I also was invited to speak at a business association that puts on guest lectures at night for the community. Yay.

I'm still waiting back on word from VA Jumpstart. The Maryland folks called me back and said that they wanted me but the schedule was fixed this year, but we're going to roll from 2010 forward.

Also, I'm having coffee with one of the guys who had a "schoolhouse rocks" video (of course, updated for today) on personal finance. I think we'll be able to share a snippett of it here on GRS.

Great efforts! I would be really interested in hearing more about how your "School House Rock" program goes.

You might want to look into Banking on Our Future. It's a national program . They basically train adults in financial literacy, provide them with a curriculum, and then provide classes (grade school, high school and others) that need teachers. It's a great way for concerned folks to get involved and teach kids and young adults about financial literacy.

While this is not a community involvement endeavor, I have a web site on success that offers a free basic success course. I promote it at the schools and colleges in my community to try to help give a good start to the youth of the world.

I also have an free ebook on investing and a free ebook on starting your own online business. I hope that these books will help people with their finances.

As far as actual community envolvement, I support our church charities and the Las Vegas mission.

Tom