Community Outreach: Giving Back

Communities Across The State Benefit

If money was not an issue, what are your dreams?” That’s the question that was posed by Service Credit Union’s Jaime Yates to Justin Munroe, the owner of Grow Nashua, an organization that’s creating community gardens in “food deserts.” Munroe said he would create free farmstands for people in need and buy a van for transporting the produce.

That dream was realized, thanks to Service CU. It is just one of the many community investments that the credit union has made over the years. “We support the communities we serve, creating value and enduring relationships,” Yates says. “It’s about more than getting seats at a table, sending them our logo and saying that we're a sponsor. I like to talk to these organizations to hear what their needs are, see where their gaps are.”

Yates, who is Manager of Community Relations, works to carry out the mission of community support, especially in relation to the areas of basic needs, the arts, education, youth sports, STEM, and military and veterans. “We look at all of our 35 branches across New Hampshire when we’re deciding where the most impact would be, what relationships and what partnerships we’re going to form, and what will impact the most people,” Yates says.

The most fulfilling for her are the partnerships with organizations that support veterans, which are a particular focus of Service CU. One of those organizations is Easterseals, which has a program called Veterans Count. It’s designed to provide veterans, service members and their families with critical and timely clinical and social services, as well as financial assistance.

“What’s unique about the Veterans Count program,” says Yates, “is that they match veterans with a care coordinator to help them get their individual needs met. As far as I know, they’re the only organization in the state with a program like that.” Just this year, $1.3 million was raised and donated to 25 veterans organizations.

Financial literacy is another focus. “We know that there’s a need for education about financial literacy,” Yates says. “Most of us don’t learn about that in school, those conversations aren’t being had. So what we’re doing is using fun ways to incorporate financial literacy information into the schools.”

One of the ways is through sports. Service CU is the official credit union of the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA), and Yates says part of that relationship will be to provide financial literacy education to the high schools, through a program called Bite of Reality — a hands-on app that gives teens a taste of real-world financial situations and planning. This interactive activity will teach teens how to make financial decisions and give them a better understanding of the challenges of living on a budget.

Their efforts will be helped by the fact that New Hampshire just made personal financial literacy a high school curriculum requirement. This decision goes into effect in the next school year.

But Yates says it's also important to create new programs: “Outside of the organizations that we support, we also like to look at what's missing in the state, or how else we can show up in our own way and create something new.”

One new program is to provide warmth for people in need. For the past three years, Service CU volunteers have packed bags full of hats, scarves, gloves and blankets, and distributed the items to numerous organizations across the state. “It’s a really beautiful program,” Yates says. “We are incredibly proud of it.”

Another program that was created a few years ago: Random Acts of Kindness. “This year,” Yates says, “when gas and grocery prices were rising, our staff went to gas stations and grocery stores and, as people were checking out, staff members randomly paid for what people were buying.”

At the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival, T-shirts brand the message about financial wellness.

Yates says it’s important for Service CU to know it’s “doing right” by its members. “I think our members take pride in how we give back in the communities that they live and work in, and doing it in a way that is inclusive, that's wholesome.”