• Do not forget the children and youth in your community. Homeownership is a family affair. It is important that they too understand and have an opportunity to help their parents realize the dream of homeownership. Teaching the lessons of financial literacy and responsibility cannot start too soon.
• You can:
• Encourage children and youth to share their dreams of homeownership
• Encourage kids to talk to their parents about homeownership and ways they can work together as a family to realize the dream.
• Create lessons and activities that teach about personal responsibility and financial stewardship.
• Set up savings clubs for kids in partnership with a local bank or other organization.
• Develop "play money" games for kids to help them understand how to use money and what is involved in running a household-Reward them with prizes of REAL money for an activity of their choice.
• Set up a "bank" for church youth in which young people take on the responsibility for running the operation and making decisions about risk and responsibility.
• Take a look at these web sites: http://www.jumpstart.org/; http://www.ruralhomes.org/financial_literacy.htm; American Savings Education Council (www.asec.org/).

Over time, teaching these lessons and providing these experiences to children early and often can help build a tradition of financial responsibility, homeownership and community stability not matter where you live. Look at these examples to see what might work for you.