Be $mart Missouri

A Program by the Missouri Council on Economic Education

Community School Partners

The overall concept of the community/school partnership acknowledges that there are many lessons for students to learn about personal finance that do not always come out of a textbook.  The rich resources of individuals in any community that can bring their expertise to the teacher and students is value added to the education of the students.  Therefore, the partnership of a school with individuals who are willing to give their time and lend their talents serving on a local advisory board is ideal.  The amount of time and resources devoted to the BSM program is solely the discretion of the membership.  There are no guidelines with which a chapter must comply.  The partnership role might include any of the following:

•     Attend organizational meetings to set goals for the program and individual school year or events

•     Assist at events such as being acknowledged at a school assembly

•     Suggesting resource people to participate in a classroom activity or as a guest speaker

•     Providing educational materials for the classroom teacher or students such as investor education newsletters, literature on particular personal finance concepts that would be valuable to teachers as resource information, providing current data for a variety of special topics such as employment, credit, insurance, consumer protection and the like

•     Participating in a parent night event offering expertise in a given personal finance related field (non-commercial)

•     Helping inform the community of the BSM program by making presentations at meetings of the chamber of commerce, service clubs, alumni meetings, parent organizations, including information in company or organization newsletters, etc.