Community Mentorship Program

The Community Mentorship Program was established in 2005 to build and strengthen the capacity of community agencies to provide financial education services to their clientele. To accomplish this goal, the program uses a train-the-trainer/mentorship model which has been successful in international community-based programming undertaken by the National Council for Economic Education and its Minnesota affiliate, the Minnesota Council on Economic Education.

This model teams Extension Educators (EEs) from the University of Minnesota, who are experienced personal finance educators, with community-based agencies in their areas. The EEs serve as mentors to the community agencies, helping them develop content expertise and skills in educational program delivery in personal finance. The EEs assist in the planning, marketing, delivery, and evaluation of community workshops offered by the agencies. The goal is to mentor community agencies to develop their competence to deliver personal finance programming without on-site assistance from the EEs.

Since the program began in 2005, it has served nearly 500 clients, including low-income families and children. The 28 participating agencies have trained 49 staff, who conducted over 38 workshops.

This program is funded by University of Minnesota Extension, McKnight Foundation, and GMAC ResCap.

How the Program Works

What Agency Partners Are Saying

What Workshop Participants Are Saying

If your community agency is interested in participating in the Community Mentorship Program, please contact Jo Prouty at jprouty@umn.edu or 612-625-3727.