TopLine Federal Credit Union Provides Financial Advice to First-Time Interns

MAPLE GROVE, MN--(Marketwired - August 12, 2015) - Local member-owned financial cooperative TopLine Federal Credit Union was invited to speak this summer with teens participating in Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth's BrookLynk program -- a youth employment internship program that serves the communities of Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, Minn.

TopLine hosted a tailored personal finance session for the students, focusing on important financial milestones -- including getting a first job, learning the difference between gross and net income, financial institutions, and the importance of saving for big purchases, and for the future. In addition, the participants created saving and spending goals for income earned from their summer internships.

BrookLynk provides job skills training as well as experiential internships for area youth ages 14-19, and is modeled after the nationally recognized youth employment program Step-Up Achieve Jobs, which serves thousands of youth in Minneapolis.

"BrookLynk's mission is to provide tomorrow's workforce with the skills that will put them on the path to college and ultimately, a career," said Luis Salado-Herrera, BrookLynk's Youth Employment Program Coordinator. "In our first year, we matched more than thirty young people to internship opportunities with local employers in the Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center communities. We've extended our reach through career fairs and work readiness trainings, and it's all possible because of the help and support of companies and organizations like TopLine."

"As a member-owned cooperative, TopLine's first priority is to promote the best interests of its members, a responsibility that includes empowering them through financial literacy education as well as investing in their communities. BrookLynk is a wonderful intersection of both," said Vicki Roscoe Erickson, Vice President of Marketing, TopLine Federal Credit Union. "It's never too soon to start talking with kids about money -- especially when they start to earn it. These students had tremendous curiosity about finances -- they asked great questions about saving for college and saving for their first car."

TopLine Federal Credit Union, a Twin Cities-based credit union, is Minnesota's 13th largest, with assets of more than $370 million. Established in 1935, the not-for-profit cooperative offers a complete line of financial services, as well as auto and home insurance, from its five branch locations -- in Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Plymouth and in St. Paul's Como Park -- as well as by phone, mobile app and online at www.TopLinecu.com. Membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, attends school or volunteers in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington Counties and their immediate family members.

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