Creators of original Money Smart Week commend Rockford's efforts

By Melissa Westphal

BusinessRockford.com

Federal Reserve officials praised Rockford this week for the city’s first-year successes in introducing the Money Smart Week program to the local community earlier this year.

Money Smart Week is a series of events aimed at improving financial literacy and money management for people of all ages, first introduced by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2001. The program spread this year to Rockford, Bloomington/Normal, Peoria and Champaign/Urbana.

More than 60 local nonprofits, schools, libraries, financial institutions and other groups collaborated for the first-time program in April in Rockford.

About 1,000 attended Money Smart Week in the Rock River Valley. More than half of attendees completed surveys about the events, and 89 percent of those people said they were likely to change the way they manage their money.

Alejo Torres and Cindy Ivanac-Lillig with the Federal Reserve shared survey results with partner organizations on Thursday. The group talked about cross-promoting events next year for greater exposure and will further brainstorm the 2009 program starting in October.

Family Credit Management was the lead organization behind Money Smart Week, and Vice President Heidi Berardi was the event chairwoman. Berardi said the organization, a credit counseling and debt-management agency, is overwhelmed with residents calling for assistance during tough economic times, so they’ll need extra help in preparing for the 2009 Money Smart Week program.

Call Berardi at 815-484-1608 to get involved with next year’s event.

Reach staff writer Melissa Westphal at 815-987-1341 or mwestpha@rrstar.com.