Prior to COVID-19, the TFCU Financial Empowerment team only taught in-person financial education workshops. At the height of the pandemic, the talented team proved that they could turn social-distancing challenges into opportunities, and began creating three-minute educational videos for social media. These videos covered a variety of topics, such as Understanding Your Credit Score and Getting Out of Debt, and were shared on various social media platforms, along with 30-minute Facebook Live workshop videos every Thursday. These videos have transformed the way TFCU now offers financial education and have grown into a library the team can access when trying to reach communities when we are unable to provide in-person financial education.
In 2021, a good example of this occurred with our business partners The Salvation Army of Tulsa Hope Center. They not only hosted TFCU’s in-person classes, but also incorporated our workshop videos into their Rental Assistance Program, which assists individuals in the Tulsa community who are at risk of becoming homeless. Being flexible with how we provide financial education allowed TFCU to reach more members than ever and to give them easy access to what we have to offer. In 2021, the TFCU Financial Empowerment team presented 47 Facebook Live workshops, created 19 financial education videos for our growing library of resources and conducted a total of 376 workshops for 10,956 people.