Clackamas Honored Nationally for Youth Financial Education Work

The Credit Union National Association and the Northwest Credit Union Association recognize Clackamas’ volunteerism and service in the last year.

At Clackamas, we were recently honored for our community outreach at the regional and national levels.

We were first honored with a regional “Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Community Service Award,” named for one of the Credit Union Movement’s pioneers. The Dora Maxwell Award recognizes credit union community outreach programs.

We understood the impact the pandemic was having on the communities we serve, so in support of those experiencing food and housing insecurity, we donated more than $69,000 for nonprofit organizations to deliver aid to people in need. Additionally, our staff volunteered nearly 500 hours, working to organize and deliver at-home food boxes to those at high risk for COVID.

“Clackamas recognizes the value of service, and they work to make life better for their members and the people in communities they serve,” said Christine Ruzzi, NWCUA’s Assistant Vice President, Enterprise Engagement Resources. “We congratulate them on these prestigious awards.” Throughout the pandemic, we have donated critical funds to nonprofits, supported first responders with meals and gift cards, hand-delivered food to those in need, and distributed personal protective equipment.

We were also honored for our efforts in youth and adult financial literacy work with the regional Alphonse Desjardins Youth and Adult Financial Education Awards, as well as with the first place national Desjardins Youth Financial Literacy Award!

Alphonse Desjardins founded the first credit unions in the United States and Canada and pioneered youth savings clubs and credit union branches in schools. At Clackamas, we carry on this tradition through our Youth and Adult Financial Education programs. We recognized a massive need for these programs as the pandemic continued to put our members and community citizens in dire need of financial services. We doubled the number of financial education workshops offered to members and developed new workshops to address the needs of members who were newly unemployed or under-employed. Through a variety of partnerships with nonprofit organizations, we recorded the workshops to be shared with community members those organizations serve. More than 500 adults and 1,200 youth benefitted from these programs.

“We are humbled and honored to be recognized by our regional and national peers with these awards,” remarked Clackamas CEO Aaron Goff. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team and their incredible efforts to improve lives through financial literacy, as well as addressing food-insecurity and the many other programs we are involved with.”