KeyBank, World Learning, and SIT Partner to Strengthen Financial Literacy for Refugees

Vermont Business Magazine KeyBank awarded a $20,000 grant to World Learning for the Pathway to Financial Literacy program, a new initiative under World Learning’s New Vermonter Education Program (NVEP). This critical support will expand NVEP’s curriculum offerings and help World Learning ensure the long-term success of the program, which is quickly becoming a national model for refugee resettlement.

NVEP is a partnership between World Learning and School for International Training (SIT) and the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) in which refugees receive short-term housing and education in Brattleboro.

More than 100 Afghan refugees have received temporary housing and English and cultural orientation classes on the SIT campus since January, in an effort to fully integrate new Vermonters into the community. Other plans include expanding the program to new groups of refugees this fall.

“On behalf of World Learning, I am thrilled to take this next step to grow our partnership with KeyBank through this critical support of our programming for new Vermonters settling in Brattleboro. We look forward to working together in a community where both our institutions have deep roots,” said Carol Jenkins, CEO of World Learning.

The KeyBank grant will allow NVEP to expand its English language learning program to include basic financial literacy training tailored to the needs, backgrounds and experiences of refugees. Staff from the local KeyBank branch were brought in to deliver the classes with the dual purpose of introducing refugees to more members of the Brattleboro community.

“KeyBank believes in doing its part to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in our neighborhoods through education, workforce development and community investment,” said Brigitte Ritchie, Regional Head of Corporate Responsibility at KeyBank. “As a company known for its strong culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, we welcome people of all cultures to our community and are proud to help make them successful.”

World Learning Inc. is a thriving global organization comprised of World Learning, a nonprofit global development and exchange organization, The Experiment in International Living, the nation’s most experienced provider of cross-cultural exchange programs in foreign and virtual for high school students; and School for International Training, offering accredited undergraduate study abroad programs through SIT Study Abroad, including the Comparative International Honors Program, and master’s degrees, certificate programs, and Ph.D. with an international vocation through the SIT Graduate Institute. For more than 90 years, the organization has provided international education, cultural exchange and sustainable development. For more information, visit worldlearning.org.

KeyCorp’s roots go back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest banking financial services companies, with assets of approximately $187.0 billion as of June 30, 2022. Key provides deposit, lending, cash and investment management to individuals and businesses in 15 United States as KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also offers a wide range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as advice on mergers and acquisitions, public and private debt and capital, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies. in selected industries across the United States under the trade name KeyBanc Capital Markets.

For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is an FDIC member.