Royal Credit Union has partnered with the Hennepin County Jail in Plymouth, MN and the St. Croix County Jail in Hudson, WI to provide financial education through our signature correctional facility financial education program. These partnerships are the first expansion to offer this opportunity into Royal’s Metro Minnesota market.
Royal’s correctional facility financial education program started in the Eau Claire County Jail in October 2015. After this initial success, it became clear that the program could be replicated in other correctional facilities. A new partnership with the Barron County Jail was added in September 2016. Less than six months later, in February 2017, our partnership with Literacy Chippewa Valley grew to include the Dunn County Jail. In 2019, Royal expanded our correctional facility programming beyond the county jail system by partnering with the Chippewa Valley Correctional Treatment Facility through the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. To date, Royal’s correctional facility financial education program has impacted over 1,700 individuals.
Hennepin County Jail will have re-occurring in-person lessons lead by members of Royal’s Financial Education team starting in the fall 2022. St Croix County Jail has been participating through delivery of virtual lessons. Both in-person and virtual programming offer the same core curriculum on budgeting, credit, goal setting, and hands-on activities to explore the true cost of living.
Royal’s correctional facility program supports a marginalized population. We believe it can play a small role in creating the systematic change that is necessary in our society. Students in the program showed statistically significant gains in content knowledge, attitudes, and confidence levels regarding financial literacy. In the words of one student, referring to Royal's instructor, "She treated me like a person, that doesn't always happen." For more information about our correctional facility program, visit rcu.org/CorrectionalEducation and take a look at our white paper.
