About the Center
The Financial Capability Center works to provide financial education, counseling and coaching to the local community by combining Merrimack’s determination to provide an innovative educational experience to our students with Merrimack’s service values through experiential service-learning opportunities.
Students who enroll in the four-credit Financial Capabilities course are instructed and educated on how to become successful financial coaches to clients of local nonprofits. The students develop a wide range of skills through faculty-led workshops, where they learn financial-management skills along with financial-coaching techniques.
Students also gain real-world experience as they are matched with local clients to offer financial-capability coaching in the community. They provide one-on-one coaching sessions to support their clients in establishing and achieving self-selected financial goals.
Students are supported in their coaching experience by Girard School of Business faculty mentors, trained to deliver financial-capability services to low-income households, and by staff from our nonprofit partners in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
For the Community
The Financial Capability Center works to promote healthier financial behaviors to Merrimack students and the local community through workshops led by staff and coaches, as well as one-on-one coaching. Clients of local nonprofits are empowered and supported to be educated on the financial skills necessary to reach self-chosen goals. Coaches are also available at weekly drop-in clinics on campus, where they offer peer-to-peer coaching to Merrimack students, and at the Hands to Help center in Lawrence, where they serve local residents.
Partnerships
To effectively deliver its services in the community, the Center has partnered with
- ACT Lawrence, a nonprofit community-development corporation dedicated to financial empowerment.
- Hands to Help, a community outreach partnership between Merrimack College and the St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
- Lawrence Public Schools
Contact Us
Crowe Hall #127
978-837-5663
financialcapability@merrimack.edu
