CLARKS SUMMIT — The Abington Community Library, through its recently launched “IDEAL PARTNERS” campaign, is highlighting local partnerships that are cultivated throughout the year, this month focusing on financial literacy.

The overall campaign focuses on the five Pennsylvania Library Association’s (PaLA) 21st Century Literacies Initiative, PA Forward, which was conceived to give voice to what the library community already knows: with the right support, libraries are ideally positioned to become the community centers of information, technology, and learning that will fuel educational and economic opportunity for all of our citizens. This initiative focuses on five literacies: Basic, Civic and Social, Health, Information, and Financial. These five literacies are the focus of library programming and services during the five-month campaign.

Posters representing the five literacies showcasing the library’s IDEAL PARTNERS are put on display at the library. The original photography was done by Guy Cali, of Guy Cali and Associates, who donated his time, talents, and all materials to create the images.

The Abington Community Library recognizes financial literacy as a building block to an informed community contributing to the economic vitality realized by themselves and their neighbors. Together with the IDEAL PARTNERS, it aims to reinforce the importance of financial literacy.

IDEAL PARTNERS for financial literacy include local banks, such as Citizens Savings Bank, Fidelity Discount and Deposit Bank, PNC Bank and Peoples Security Bank and Trust, that support the library with corporate sponsorship and donations, as well as contributions toward educational classes for all ages.

Statistically, 41 percent of U.S. adults give themselves a grade of C, D, or F on their knowledge of personal finance.

One in four adults do not pay bills on time.

One in three has no savings and does not save any portion of household income for retirement.

The library aims to change the level of financial awareness through continued development of print and electronic resources available to the community, ongoing financial literacy classes offered, and a focus on the youngest library users to introduce and/or reinforce the topic early in their lives.

For more information about current basic literacy programs, contact the library at 570-587-3440 or visit lclshome.org/Abington. To become an IDEAL PARTNERS in the future, contact the director, Leah Ducato Rudolph.

The Abington Community Library recognizes its ‘IDEAL PARTNERS’ in Financial Literacy.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_ABJ-Financial-Literacy.jpg.optimal.jpgThe Abington Community Library recognizes its ‘IDEAL PARTNERS’ in Financial Literacy. Submitted photo

For Abington Journal

Information provided by the Abington Community Library.