{"id":17567,"date":"2023-12-05T14:27:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T14:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/?p=17567"},"modified":"2023-12-11T17:11:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T17:11:23","slug":"santa-fe-realtors-promote-diverse-housing-options-in-housing-strapped-region-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2-3-2-4-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-2-3-2-2-1-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/homepage\/success-story\/npvar-hop1223","title":{"rendered":"North Platte Valley Association of REALTORS\u00ae Leverages Housing Opportunity Grant to Promote Financial Literacy Among Local 8th Graders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Many members of the North Platte Valley Board of REALTORS\u00ae <\/sup>(NPVBOR) are property managers who know first-hand the struggles of tenants trying to make ends meet in the poorest county in Wyoming.\u00a0 This fall, with a Housing Opportunity Grant<\/a> from the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party, the board partnered with WyoHELP, a non-profit that addresses housing instability, to conduct a financial literacy program for the county\u2019s eighth graders.\u00a0 It was such a success that the school district is fully on-board to continue the program, and the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> hope to expand it to help prepare high school students.<\/p>\n

Shelly Duncan, who serves as president of WyoHELP\u2019s board, has also been president of Wyoming REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup>, and chair of NAR\u2019s Housing Opportunities Committee; she is currently a member of NAR\u2019s Community Engagement Committee. \u00a0As she explains, \u201cSo many decisions made before graduating from high school can affect a person\u2019s eventual ability to rent or buy a home.\u00a0 Our members wanted to catch kids, and help them, prior to making poor decisions or creating poor habits.\u00a0 Many of them have been sheltered, living in small communities and on farms, and have no idea about things like rental leases and other responsibilities involved with living away from home.\u00a0 By bringing them the Reality Town program, we start them thinking about the correlation between good grades and good jobs, and how much life really costs.<\/p>\n

The Reality Town program introduces these concepts with classroom exercises like job hunting and resume writing, and learning to write checks and balance a checkbook.\u00a0 The big event is a two-hour simulation in a \u2018real-world\u2019 town, where booths are manned by volunteers who guide the students through the experience of having a certain salary and realistic expenses.<\/p>\n

This fall, in Torrington, Wyoming, NPVBOR offered the training to 129 8th<\/sup>-graders from three different schools.\u00a0 While it was initially challenging to get the schools\u2019 attention and convince them that the program was relevant, having experienced it, the school district and the teachers are now on board; the curriculum actually satisfies a unit in the social studies teaching standards, and the teachers will be using the workbooks for future units taught in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Preparation for the main event took the committee of REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> and affiliates a couple of months.\u00a0 It was held at the local fairgrounds, a neutral site that Duncan\u2019s \u2018marketing brain\u2019 devised to sidestep the bureaucracy involved with conducting a program within the schools.\u00a0 Local businesses were invited to participate, and volunteers ranging from insurance brokers to dental and hospital workers stepped up to help.\u00a0 The REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> members loved it, performing as grocers and pet store owners \u2013 as well as REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup>.\u00a0 All the contributing businesses were encouraged to bring branded materials and were promoted by advertisements in the local paper and radio outlets.<\/p>\n

The reality of living in a grown-up\u2019s world came as a real shock to most of the youngsters, reports Duncan.\u00a0 \u201cAt the mortgage table, after students had paid their bill, they were told, \u2018Now, you have to have to pay your property tax\u2019; they all said, \u2018Huh?!\u2019 \u00a0They had no idea.\u00a0 Resource officers issued citations for dogs that were at-large, and for loitering.\u00a0 Some students had to get second and third jobs to meet their expenses.\u201d\u00a0 According to Duncan, the prevailing attitude was \u201cBeing an adult is hard!\u00a0 And expensive!\u201d\u00a0 The post-assessments revealed that prior to the program, most of the students had no sense of any correlation between their grades and their future job options.\u00a0 Nor had they ever discussed household finances with their parents. \u00a0Afterwards, they demonstrated an understanding that their grades mattered to their future, and a desire to delay adulthood as long as possible!<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, NPVBOR is hoping the school district will allow high school juniors to participate in the program, as part of the personal finance requirement for graduation.\u00a0 \u201cEquipping students with financial literacy can turn future renters into homeowners and prevent financial hardship.\u00a0 That\u2019s a win-win for REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup>, community members and Wyoming as a whole,\u201d concludes Duncan.<\/p>\n

To learn more about how the North Platte Valley Board of REALTORS\u00ae <\/sup><\/strong>is helping the young people in its community to understand the financial realities of being an adult and how they can begin to prepare for their futures, contact\u00a0Shelly Duncan, at shellyduncanrealtor@gmail.com or 307-575-2894.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In partnership with like-minded organizations in rural eastern Wyoming, the North Platte Valley Board of REALTORS\u00ae conducted a “Reality Town” program to introduce important concepts of financial literacy to area 8th grade youth. Students from three schools in the region learned about the correlation between grades and earning potential, and real-world living expenses, from participating grown-ups in their community \u2013 including REALTORS\u00ae. ","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[381,501],"class_list":["post-17567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-california","tag-land-use-initiative"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}