PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Growing up along Girard Avenue, Crystal Evans had never heard of financial literacy. She was never taught anything about money management.
The North Philly native became homeless in 2009 but climbed out of poverty by cleaning homes for an income. She eventually built her own street-cleaning team, which forced her to ask herself: How do I run a successful business?
“I decided to go to school,” she said. “I got an associate’s degree in accounting, a bunch of certificates in business finance. And then I’ve worked among some people who are very successful that mentor me as well.”
One of those people was Barack Obama. The first time Evans actually heard the phrase “financial literacy” was during a class in a conference room with the then-president.
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“I raised my hand and I’m like, ‘What can I take back to my community? We don’t know how to build wealth. We don’t know how to create wealth. What can I take back?’ And it was the first time that I heard ‘financial literacy.’ I didn’t know what financial literacy was. Never heard of it.”
That phrase opened the door for Evans to break her and her family’s cycle of poverty. She realized financial literacy wasn’t being taught in schools, nor was it talked about at home.
“We need to reform the curriculums. We have STEM — we have science, we have math, we have all those things, but if people don’t learn how to manage your finances, then how are they going to manage their households? And if they can’t manage their households, they’re going to be behind on rent. And if they’re behind a rent, they might become homeless. And I’ve been homeless before, so I know what it’s like to be broke [with] 69 cents in your pocket.”
Evans, now a licensed financial adviser, founded Money Talks Edu, a nonprofit that teaches financial literacy skills to underserved youth, helping them break the cycle of generational poverty.
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“The difference between us and corporate CEOs and executives that are behind the desk is they’re not able to break it down and speak the language to our kids so that they can get it and retain it and understand it and apply it to their lives,” she explained.
“We give them a class budget and we say, ‘This is your budget. You want to throw a party,’ and we actually throw the party. So they get to have discussions about where to spend the money. I say, ‘Listen, you got 200 bucks. Figure out what you want for your party.’ ”
Evans makes money management resources more accessible to Philly youth no matter what neighborhood they live in. She’s shared her lessons not only in classrooms and recreation centers but also in the form of a written curriculum. She co-authored a book, “Road to Riches,” that introduces teenagers to personal finance.
“We also have an app that has a gamification feature to it, which highlights the book,” she added. It allows kids to engage in healthy competition among their peers or schools.
Evans lost her younger brother to gun violence in 2014, so she views financial literacy as a solution to poverty and the other issues that intersect.
“Losing someone to gun violence isn’t an easy thing. That’s something you live with for the rest of your life. So for me, it’s a part of the healing.”
Evans is working on a citywide financial literacy competition to educate underserved families across different Philadelphia ZIP codes and help them build generational wealth.
“I don’t have children, but I want to leave something behind,” she said. “I want to make an impact, not just in Philadelphia, but in the entire educational system.
“We need financial literacy.”