In her work at a foster-care group home, Blaire Haggett noticed the young people faced a particularly intractable challenge. They would often earn money at jobs or receive money to support their needs, but could not open a bank account because they could not get a parental signature.
“I had asked five, six, seven banks and continuously was told no, they have to have a cosigner,” Haggett said. “It was just really unfortunate because kids’ money would disappear from the group home. They would have hundreds of dollars in cash that some had saved, some were working, and it just wasn’t safe.”
When Haggett started working for Green Mountain United Way, whose Tatum’s Totes program provides backpacks filled with essential items for young people who enter emergency foster care, she brought up the problem of the bank accounts.
At a staff meeting, Haggett asked if it would be possible to open accounts for foster children without their parents’ signature.
Green Mountain United Way was already working with NorthCountry Federal Credit Union on another program, said Tawnya Kristen, executive director of Green Mountain United Way, and so the nonprofit asked the credit union if it could open those bank accounts.
“When you don’t have a guardian for an underage person under the age of 18, if something happens and goes wrong with that account, you don’t have anybody you can legally obligate for anything,” explained Jeff Smith, senior vice president of lending at NorthCountry Federal Credit Union.
But the credit union found a workaround.
Smith said foster youth without guardians ages 14 to 17 can now open a checking account using a debit card with the credit union. They can apply remotely with the help of a caseworker, he said, but if they can come to one of the credit union’s offices in person with their caseworker, they are introduced to branch staff in the hope that they will feel welcomed and supported.
Credit union staff members ask the young people to create financial goals for themselves, and then follow up with phone calls, he said.
Smith said the credit union has created almost 20 accounts, and has been notified by the Department for Children and Families that Vermont has 200 to 225 young people without guardians who would be eligible to open accounts.
Kimmie Rhodes, a member advocate at NorthCountry Federal Credit Union, experienced her teenage years as an unemancipated minor who could not have her own bank account. She said having an account means an opportunity for independence.
“Children in the foster care system had a really hard time cashing paychecks, paying some small bills like phone bills,” Rhodes said. “It just affords you that independence from somebody who may be able to take advantage of you, especially when you don’t have anyone around that’s really looking out for your best interest.”
When Rhodes learned that the credit union was opening these accounts, she said, she wished they had been around when she was younger.
