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FitMoney Provides Interactive $uperSquad
Financial Literacy Game to UMass Memorial Pediatric Clinics
Newton, Mass. (June 21, 2023) – FitMoney – the nonprofit organization that provides free, unbiased financial literacy programs to empower K-12 students – is proud to announce its partnership with UMass Memorial’s Child Health Equity Center. FitMoney now provides the Pediatric Primary Care and Specialty Care Clinics at UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center with free access to the FitMoney $uperSquad that is pre-programmed on tablets with this fun, interactive financial literacy program for patients to use while in the pediatric ambulatory waiting room. UMass Memorial’s Pediatric Primary and Specialty Care Practices in the Benedict building are the largest primary and specialty clinics in Worcester, Massachusetts serving over 60,000 children annually, 230 per day. Sixty percent of patients are covered by Medicaid.
$uperSquad is a game-based curriculum that uses choose-your-own-adventure stories to make the essential skill of learning about money fun. The game uses interactive stories to help kids in grades K-6 develop skills to make real-life financial decisions that are critical in adulthood, such as saving, working with a budget, and exploring career opportunities.
The partnership between FitMoney and the Child Health Equity Center supports the Center’s mission to address adverse social determinants of health for children and families. The Founding Director of the Center, Dr. Arvin Garg, is driving the initiative to bring financial literacy into the medical discussions of overall well-being. Economic stability is a key tenant of the Social Determinants of Health, a set of external factors that contribute to overall health.
“Improving the health of the children we’re taking care of goes beyond giving medical advice,” said Dr. Arvin Garg, Founding Director of the Child Health Equity Center. “We focus on a more holistic approach that includes addressing barriers to optimal health – specifically adverse social determinants of health including racism and poverty. I’m proud that Alison and I, and many others, are working to advance health equity.”
Dr. Garg and the Center’s Executive Director, Alison LeBlanc were both interviewed by Jessica Pelletier, the Executive Director of FitMoney for The FitMoney Podcast. The podcast episode delves into the work that the two organizations are undertaking to provide financial literacy resources to children at a critical age. The FitMoney Podcast aims to help families and educators have their own financial conversations by modeling the value of having discussions towards building a new generation of financially fit individuals everywhere.
For more information on the partnership between FitMoney and UMass Memorial’s Child Health Equity Center, please visit FitMoney.org. The FitMoney Podcast is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
ABOUT FITMONEY
FitMoney is a New England-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving financial literacy in Massachusetts and across the country. FitMoney provides free, unbiased financial literacy programs to help K-12 students develop life skills for a financially fit future. To see all modules, lessons, and videos, please visit www.FitMoney.org.
ABOUT CHILD HEALTH EQUITY CENTER
The Child Health Equity Center was established in 2022 in partnership with UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Health to conduct research, training, programs, and advocacy to advance child health equity in the US and globally. The Center addresses racism, poverty, adverse social determinants of health, and trauma and creates programs and research to provide more equitable access to healthcare, education, employment, safe and affordable housing, transportation, and childcare. The Center’s programs encompass more than 40 ongoing projects, including the WE CARE social determinants of health screening tool that has been implemented nationwide and has helped identify health-related social needs of thousands of children and families. Center faculty, all of whom are national leaders in child health equity research, hold more than $30M in funding from the National Institutes of Health and other extramural funding sources. Learn more about the Child Health Equity Center at childhealthequitycenter.org.