Join us as we officially launch the Center for Consumer Financial Lives in Transition 2-day Virtual research event. This session will highlight the work being done and forthcoming projects from the Center, along with outlining the educational content shared at the virtual event.

How do these three aspects of our lives: health, work and justice, profoundly affect the lives of so many, and why do these three areas have an outsized potential to financially bankrupt a person or an entire family?

The following themes will be explored with a keynote and panel of experts sharing ideas and evidence-based solutions that can mitigate the financial struggle for many. 

Finding work with a living wage is a challenge. New technology is reshaping how Americans work, and new challenges face Americans working two, three or more jobs to make ends meet.

This session will answer the questions:

• What is the changing nature of work in the 21^st century?
• What challenges do employees face with regards to financial well-being? 
• What programs and products help mitigate income volatility?
• And what do credit unions need to know about identifying and responding proactively in the coming months? 

If finding well-paying work is difficult, finding work with access to affordable healthcare is even more difficult. Even with healthcare, millions of Americans are under-insured, and one health emergency away from healthcare-related financial emergency.

This session will answer the questions:

• What role does heath care play in financial well-being?
• What products and services are being used by those without health insurance?
• What can credit unions do to help mitigate this problem?
• What innovative programs are bringing affordable healthcare to vulnerable populations?

For millions of Americans who have experienced the justice system–whether receiving a parking citation for $400 or $600, or a family member navigating the corrections system–justice in the US is expensive, and disproportionately impacts our society’s most financially vulnerable. Too often the associated fines and fees added on after a citizen has paid their debt to society continue to punish the formerly incarcerated. Low credit scores create barriers to housing, employment, and car loans.  In many states holders of justice-involved debt forfeit their right to vote. 

Anne Stuhldreher, Director of Financial Justice for the City and County of San Francisco, will lead the keynote on the challenges faced by justice-involvement. Join us to learn about the financial impacts of justice-involvement, and what can be done to mitigate the financial well-being of millions of individuals and their families who struggle.

This session will answer the questions:

• What are credit unions doing now to help their members cope with these challenges?
• What are some best practices for justice-involved financial services?
• How can credit unions leverage the CU mission to serve this growing population?

Every year we as a nation spend billions of dollars to address complex challenges, such as education, workforce development and Economic mobility. However, we fail to achieve the desired results. The work we are doing on the ground isn’t adding up to the impact we want to see in our communities.

Most solutions have historically focused on applying programmatic fixes to the symptoms of these failing systems, rather than transforming the systems themselves to catalyze enduring change.

After attending this session, attendees will better understand:

• How to expand economic opportunity and vitality with a multi-sector approach.
• How to partner more intentionally with foundations, non-profits, and key institutions to address complex challenge, such as economic mobility, asset building, and workforce development.

The business case for member compatibility is clear: when credit unions match member needs with their offerings and operating model, they see greater member loyalty and stronger financial results.

During this interactive workshop, we will explore the three keys to achieving member excellence. We will discuss the tradeoffs required, and how operational transparency has an outsized impact on member experience. Outcomes: learn how to gain clarity around target member segments, understand what's most important from the target member perspective, insight into your relative strengths today.

In this session, attendees will dig more deeply into lessons from Day 1 in conversation with Filene Fellow Dr. Lisa Servon. Attendees will learn insights from research with credit unions and alternative financial services providers about how to operationalize your strategic focus on consumer lifecycle and lifestyle transitions. Learn how to expand your reach and grow your membership with convenience, cost transparency, inclusive marketing, and judgement-free service.

As credit unions continue to transform the way people experience financial services and the communities they are part of, defining and quantifying well-being has become increasingly strategically important. The factors contributing to well-being are often subjective and harder to quantify. What may feel like a satisfactory condition for some may not adequate for others. Quantifying it provides specific opportunities for individuals, local governments, and organizations, such as credit unions, that are committed to a social cause tied to purpose. 

Filene Research Institute has created and validated a well-being model and methodology for measuring well-being at the intersection of health, prosperity (financial well-being), and social ties. Observing and measuring well-being across the different communities that credit unions serve will yield valuable information that can be used to:

• Identify concrete ways credit unions track, benchmark, and improve members well-being;   
• Measure the organization’s social and community impact;
• Inform executive team decision-making and guide strategic direction; and 
• Accelerate the organization’s growth.

Hear directly from your peers on the lessons learned and successes found from implementing a consumer financial wellness initiative at their credit unions.

Since the publication of The Financial Diaries in 2017, our understanding of financial precarity outlined in Jonathan Murdoch’s research has evolved. Professor Murdoch will discuss how financial needs can be understood in terms of “lumps” and “flows”–where lumps are large payouts, such as a loans, inheritances or life insurance payouts, and “flows” are made up of the smaller, sustaining income received at a regular cadence. Credit unions will gain insights on the importance of both types of cashflow needs, and will be challenged to apply these models to better support their members.

Prepare for deeper learning at this optional pre-event session.

Does your role center around marketing and consumer financial lives? 

Start off this research event with a leg up for a deep dive into some of the resources Filene has designed specifically for the marketing leaders within your Credit Union.

Bring your lunch and join us for this optional session to enhance your experience.

What do you get when you take the brightest minds focused on the same issue and put them in a room…..Leader Conversations. Leader Conversations is an opt-in session that connects credit union data practitioners with their peers in the Filene network. Each session operates as a moderated forum that enables participants to ask their burning questions about what’s working, not working all while sharing best practices with each other. When combined with the research insights – we have found these sessions can be a great way to tackle a thorny issue or accelerate progress on an upcoming initiative. This is a no-slide session.

You're invited to join a group of energetic and passionate emerging leaders, aka, The Crashers brought to you by The Cooperative Trust. 

During this optional lunchtime session, attendees will hear from Julia Yates, LCSW on the topic of Whole Health. 

Julia Yates, LCSW will take the Crashers through the Whole Health Institute’s framework for putting the patient at the center of their health journey. With a special focus on the importance of financial well-being, participants will learn some easy tactics to shift to a truly member-centric service model.

The Whole Health Institute was founded by Alice L. Walton to focus on radically redesigning the systems that impact our health and well-being with the ultimate goal of making the Whole Health model affordable and accessible to all. This, together with a grass roots, community-based movement will create a radical shift in connectivity, compassion, and collective humanity.