It is well known that one of the major contributing factors to stress is financial insecurity. Unfortunately, many times individuals lack the information and skills needed to make financially sound decisions and end up having to dig themselves out of debt. Often those uneducated decisions happen following high school graduation as students transition into the next phase of life. During the 2019 Kentucky Extension Community Assessment for Christian County community members identified the following as important community issues: more youth life skills training (money management, life decision making, etc.) and better family skills in reducing debt, increasing savings and financial planning. In order to address these issues the Christian County Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences met with the Money Sense planning committee to develop the Money Sense for Graduates (MSFG) program.

The purpose of the MSFG program is to teach financial education to graduating high school seniors throughout the county. This was done by offering a one day MSFG Financial Forum at the Hopkinsville Community College. High school seniors from all public and private schools in the county attended. Each student listened to the key note speaker and then attended three breakout sessions with topics ranging from basic banking to Money Habitudes. During registration the students were able to rank the breakout sessions in order of importance based on their after graduation plans, allowing each student’s experience to be personalized to their needs.

The MSFG Forum took place on March 10, 2020 with 596 high school seniors in attendance and over a dozen community volunteers leading breakout sessions (including the Christian County Agents for 4-H Youth and Development and the Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences). Feedback from students in attendance as well as school administration has been overwhelmingly positive. Shortly after the forum took place COVID-19 hit making the need for financial education even more important. The Money Sense committee has met and plans to offer the MSFG Forum again in the spring. Virtual methods are being explored incase social distancing is still needed at that time.