BayCoast Bank Partners On Innovative Financial Literacy Website

Filed Under: Banking

SWANSEA — BayCoast Bank is one of eight community banks across Massachusetts to bring the popular Credit for Life Fair to high school students this spring.

High school students throughout the state can participate in the Credit for Life Fair this spring via a responsive website. The site is being designed by Stackpole & Partners of Newburyport in collaboration with BayCoast Bank and seven other banking institutions across the Commonwealth.

The Credit for Life Fair, a half-day event where high school students assume the roles of 25-year-old adults and spend their “paychecks” on everything they will need to live, has been a popular event in many Massachusetts public schools for more than a decade. Many banks and credit unions throughout the Commonwealth host these events, using local resources and volunteers, and the Massachusetts State Treasurer’s Office of Economic Empowerment has encouraged more fairs in recent years by making grants available to schools to participate.

The event was brought to a halt by the coronavirus pandemic, but with financial literacy such an important issue, the partnership of eight banking institutions was formed and contributed funds were pooled to hire Stackpole & Partners for the design and implementation of the website.

The website development is in its final stages and will be beta tested by a group of educators and others in the next month. The group expects to have the site ready for use by high schools and others by the end of March with the hopes high that the Credit for Life Fair will eventually resume to an in-person event. The group is also in the process of establishing a 501(c)(3) that will allow it to raise funds and plan for future school financial literacy initiatives similar to creditforlife.org.

“The positive impact the Credit for Life Fair has on high school students is unquestionable,” said Nicholas Christ, president and CEO of BayCoast Bank.  “While this year’s event will be different, the website will allow the fair to continue to deliver the importance of financial literacy to our local students.”