Redefining Financial Wellness — For Youth, By Youth

The Part­ner­ship for Youth Finan­cial Well­ness (PYFW) is an Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion ini­tia­tive focused on pro­mot­ing the finan­cial health of youth and young adults. Com­prised of five youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions, with sup­port from the Local Ini­tia­tives Sup­port Cor­po­ra­tion (LISC), the PYFW works to ensure that young peo­ple have strong foun­da­tions to build finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty for them­selves and their families. 

The five part­ners — Cap­i­tal IDEA, Fos­ter For­ward, Mia­mi Dade Col­lege, NPow­er and Per Scholas — are imple­ment­ing proven approach­es that sup­port the diverse needs of young peo­ple and embody the four pil­lars of youth finan­cial well­ness, namely:

1. Finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty — hav­ing suf­fi­cient income and access to afford­able basic needs; 
2. Career path­ways — work­force and edu­ca­tion­al resources that lead to careers and earn­ing potential; 
3. Finan­cial capa­bil­i­ty — the knowl­edge, con­fi­dence, habits and access to finan­cial prod­ucts and ser­vices need­ed to man­age day-to-day finances and nav­i­gate impor­tant finan­cial deci­sions; and 
4. Sup­port and guid­ance — devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate sup­port for young peo­ple from car­ing adults. 

Rec­og­niz­ing the impor­tance of youth voice, the part­ner­ship engages young peo­ple via its Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil (YAC) to co-devel­op approach­es and assess their effec­tive­ness. The coun­cil includes 10 youth mem­bers — drawn from across the five part­ner orga­ni­za­tions — who help shape the work at both the part­ner and ini­tia­tive levels.

“It’s essen­tial that young peo­ple have a real voice in shap­ing pro­grams and strate­gies that sup­port their finan­cial well­ness,” said Elly Thomp­son, a pro­gram asso­ciate with Casey’s Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty. ​“The Part­ner­ship for Youth Finan­cial Well­ness has grown stronger thanks to the insights and lead­er­ship of its Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil mem­bers. Their per­spec­tives help sur­face solu­tions that best meet the needs of young peo­ple, their fam­i­lies and their peers.”

Inside the Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil: Lessons in Finan­cial Well­ness and Leadership

In the fol­low­ing Q&A, two mem­bers of the Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil — Jor­dan Dixon and Kate Pet­ric­cione — share their expe­ri­ences with the PYFW, what they’ve learned and what’s next for them. 

Q: Can you intro­duce your­selves and share how you became involved with the Youth Advi­so­ry Council?

Jor­dan Dixon: I am cur­rent­ly a stu­dent at Mia­mi Dade Col­lege, where I study graph­ic design. I joined LISC and the YAC through Mia­mi Dade College’s Ris­ing Schol­ars Pro­gram, which cov­ers my tuition and con­nects me to resources that sup­port my education.

Kate Pet­ric­cione: I am the Vol­un­teer Pro­gram Spe­cial­ist at NPow­er. I grad­u­at­ed from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Delaware in 2022 with a degree in neu­ro­science. I became involved with the YAC and the LISC part­ner­ship through my man­ag­er at NPow­er, who rec­og­nized an oppor­tu­ni­ty for me to con­tribute and share my per­spec­tive as a younger adult with­in our organization.

Q: How would you describe your expe­ri­ence as a YAC member? 

Jor­dan: Being a YAC mem­ber has been great! I love the flex­i­bil­i­ty and oppor­tu­ni­ties to grow my finan­cial well­ness. It has allowed me to become more resource­ful in that area for myself and for others.

Kate: Serv­ing as a youth mem­ber and con­tribut­ing to broad­er pro­gram­mat­ic work with­in the part­ner­ship has pushed me to take my own finan­cial well­ness more seri­ous­ly. I have learned so much about finan­cial well­ness, both how to apply it in my own life and how to bet­ter pro­mote it with­in my organization.

I’ve been able to explore dif­fer­ent facets of finan­cial well­ness, imple­ment them first­hand and help strength­en the partnership’s impact. This expe­ri­ence has been tru­ly spe­cial — every­one in the part­ner­ship has cre­at­ed space for youth voic­es to be heard and to make a mean­ing­ful impact.

Q: Have you gained new skills or exper­tise from your YAC service?

Kate: Absolute­ly. I’ve sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­ened my lead­er­ship skills, par­tic­u­lar­ly my con­fi­dence in shar­ing my thoughts and per­spec­tives with larg­er groups. Addi­tion­al­ly, I’ve learned to think more ana­lyt­i­cal­ly and strate­gi­cal­ly dur­ing plan­ning processes.

Jor­dan: Serv­ing on the YAC has forced me to step out of my com­fort zone more than I am used to, espe­cial­ly pre­sen­ta­tion-wise. Though I thought of myself as a good speak­er before, my self-con­fi­dence in that area has been chal­lenged and fortified.

What’s Next for the Youth Advi­so­ry Council

In the com­ing year, the YAC will con­tin­ue to engage with PYFW orga­ni­za­tions as it boosts pro­gram inno­va­tion and YAC mem­bers par­tic­i­pate in activ­i­ties aligned with their pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment goals. The coun­cil will strength­en its col­lab­o­ra­tion as a cohort, meet­ing reg­u­lar­ly to share insights on local finan­cial well­ness work and inform the Partnership’s evolv­ing pro­gram strate­gies nationally.

Learn more about youth-led grant­mak­ing in Baltimore