On this episode of Banking on KC, Kindra Sheridan, Assistant Vice President of CRA and Fair Lending at Country Club Bank, joins host Kelly Scanlon to discuss how the Finance Makes Sense program meets participants where they are, providing practical financial education that empowers individuals and strengthens communities. Tune in to discover: 1. Why understanding banking fundamentals is key to breaking cycles of financial instability. 2. How Finance Makes Cents customizes its curriculum to fit the unique needs of diverse community partners—from high schools to funeral homes. 3. The broader economic and community benefits of widespread financial literacy, and how CRA efforts support inclusive growth. Country Club Bank – Member FDIC
Kendra Sheridan Cut 1
Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. From time to time, we have an associate from Country Club Bank join us on this broadcast so that they can tell us about some of the different things that go on inside the bank that might be helpful to our customers, and to just give you an idea. Of the bank at work in the community.
So today we have Kindra Sheridan, who is an assistant vice president. She's over CRA and Fair Lending here at the bank, and she's gonna be talking with us about one of their programs called Finance. Makes sense. Welcome, Kindra.
Kindra Sheridan: Thank you for having me, Kelly.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah, this is a really great program. So why don't you give an overview and as well as the goal of the program.
Kindra Sheridan: Sure. So the goal of the program is to meet the community where they are. We realize that some folks don't have accounts and maybe they don't know where to get started. They need some financial education. So we were receiving these requests from the community and felt, you know, we could really do this.
So we sat down, we looked at some curriculums. We had an internal committee and we put everything together, rolled it out with staff. We had a great response from our staff. And here we are. We have a program. Finance. Makes sense.
Kelly Scanlon: And the goal of that is really financial literacy and how to understand the ins and outs of a bank and the services that you might need.
Would that be correct to say that?
Kindra Sheridan: Yes. Yep. It's basic financial literacy, how to make a budget, how to read your income statements. Everything. Borrowing basics, you name it, we have curriculum for it. So it's really just meeting them where they are and helping them understand then how the bank's products can help them with their goals.
Kelly Scanlon: And there are other financial literacy programs in the metro area. This one is different. Why is this one is different?
Kindra Sheridan: Because you have a banker who is a subject matter expert providing you with the education that can also answer the questions about our products and services that can help them get into the bank.
Understand how it works, what's the difference between your available balance and your ledger balance? Um, why does it take so long for your money to come back onto your card or into your account? Those type of questions we're here and we can answer those.
Kelly Scanlon: So you can provide those deeper insights related specifically to the banking process.
Tell us a little bit more about the associates' involvement. You said you had a great response. How many are involved in this program and, and what kind of training did they need to go through?
Kindra Sheridan: So we have about 20 staff who are trained. The training was learning about the curriculum, how it's set up, how to present, who we might be working with, and we have business line managers.
We have our CFO, we have the president of the bank as an instructor, some of our lenders. So really just all across the bank, we have someone who really is passionate about helping others and providing their information and expertise to those that need it.
Kelly Scanlon: So this is an all in effort. Everybody's involved at each level, and you don't offer it here at the bank.
You actually go on site. And so you meet these participants where they are. So talk to us about some of the places where this is offered.
Kindra Sheridan: Some of our partners include the Kansas City Public Library. We've also worked with the workforce development team. We have a high school. We've had. Della Lamb, but we really try to come and meet with their clients and help them with the specific things that they need from us.
Well, we're not opposed to hosting at the bank, but it's just easier if they're already going somewhere, comfortable meeting with people that they are comfortable with, and then we come in and speak with them.
Kelly Scanlon: One of the things I find, uh, especially interesting about this is that with any partner that you work with.
You do an intake survey so that you have the same basic offering, but it's customized each time. Can you talk to that a little bit?
Kindra Sheridan: Sure. Yes. We can customize our curriculum so that we can make sure that we're touching on the things that the people who are gonna receive the information need. So one of the topics that we can cover is investments.
Not everyone's ready for that. So we would leave that out if there was something that was very specific to the group. Um, such as Della Lamb. We actually talked to them about our currency so that they understand the difference in, you know, how that works here.
Kelly Scanlon: When you talk about the different groups that you serve, some people might be surprised you work with a funeral home, if I remember right.
Kindra Sheridan: Yes, we have a session coming up with Mulbar Funeral Care, and we are gonna be talking with them and their clients about what to do when your spouse or significant other passes away. Maybe you've never paid the bills, maybe you don't know where to look for your account information. What do you do if you have a safe deposit box?
We're gonna walk through all of that with their clients.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. And, and again, that's a, a need that definitely is there, but you might not think about that when it comes to, uh, a bank offering a financial literacy course. That particular audience. You mentioned investments. What are some of the other course topics?
Kindra Sheridan: So we have, um, setting goals and making financial decisions. Borrowing basics. Is owning a small business the right fit for you? We have a course that talks about the differences in how you set up your business. We have three that are for personal and six that are for business. So we really try to cover the basics and then if there's more information needed, we can do a follow up that's more in depth on a topic.
Kelly Scanlon: Where are you seeing the greatest need right now?
Kindra Sheridan: So far, we've had a lot of personal financial requests.
Kelly Scanlon: So is this a one session kind of offering or are there multiple sessions, or does it just depend on which program that you're enrolled in?
Kindra Sheridan: Yep. It just depends on our partner and what their needs are.
So we have done, um, sessions that were in a series. We've done just one-off sessions. Um, IC Stars is the workforce development program that we've worked with. We're actually getting ready to do our second set of three sessions with them. The library had three sessions, so it just kind of depends on the needs of the clients and the partner that's requesting.
Kelly Scanlon: How, how many of you offered so far? Because this is a fairly recent program, right?
Kindra Sheridan: Yes, yes. It's fairly new. So we will have had 16 sessions when we finish, um, here in the middle of July. So we've had, I believe, five partners, and some of those have been multiple sessions and some have been one-off sessions.
But our goal is to continue to have community partners to work with and, um, just serve as many people as we can. I believe we've had 61 participants. So far to date, which I think is pretty amazing.
Kelly Scanlon: That really is. It also really reinforces the need for it. What kind of feedback are you getting?
Kindra Sheridan: Our partners love this program.
They love that it is customizable. We can also offer this in English or Spanish. We have materials that we provide to all participants that they can take their own notes. They can take that home with them, they could bring it in and ask questions with, um, it's really versatile. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Scanlon: So if you had a participant who perhaps isn't computer literate or just doesn't have access to a computer, you have handouts that they can use.
So again, it's really that meeting people where they are kind of philosophy. When you have the associates involved, do they teach a particular course? Or are they generalists?
Kindra Sheridan: Yeah, anybody can take it. Usually what happens when I get the request, I put all the details out to the team and say, here's what it is, when it is how many people, and they let me know if they're interested.
So most of the time, if it's something that they feel they're more of an expert on. That's the one that they'll say I'm available, but they can can do any of them that they feel comfortable with.
Kelly Scanlon: I think we all recognize that financial literacy is important, however, beyond the surface of, you know, okay, I need to know how to balance a checkbook so that I can make sure I have enough money in my account.
And you know, what's the difference between a seven savings and checking account and some of the really basic things? What is the larger, uh. Impact of being financially literate or conversely, if you wanna look at it, of not being financially literate. It, it goes beyond just being able to balance your checkbook.
Talk to us about that greater importance or need.
Kindra Sheridan: So in our research, we found that almost 50% of adults in the United States are financially illiterate, which was shocking. Um, and then digging in a little. Further, we found that not all schools require some sort of financial education as part of their high school graduation requirements.
And that's changing a little bit, isn't it? It is changing a little bit. Yeah. Um, I think now two thirds of our states have some sort of a requirement for graduation, which is important. However, it still doesn't go into how banks work. How does your checking account work? How does your debit card work? And I think part of this too is you can show someone how to make a budget.
But if you're young and you haven't experienced your own life yet, right? You don't know how to apply it. And so just really sitting down and explaining how these things work in a context where they're able to practice, I think is very important. I don't think anyone really knows what they're doing when they're 18, even if they've had a financial education growers right.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, and just the economic impact. If you have people who are in control of their finances, they're able to aspire for something, how to make their dollars work better, uh, economically, it creates better communities. It's really better for everybody involved.
Kindra Sheridan: Another thing that we find is sometimes when people don't know what the bank offers, they go to payday lenders or title loans, right?
Or. You know, they have a reloadable card, but they don't realize all of the fees that they're charged along the way, which takes away from their income. Yes. And so if they had a bank account, it could save them money. Bank accounts aren't necessarily always free. However, the fees are less than a transaction by transaction basis that they would pay from one of the financial services that they utilize.
Kelly Scanlon: That's a great point. We've been talking about the specific program. Uh, finance makes sense that you have rolled out here at the bank, but. I mentioned that you oversee CRA efforts here at the bank. What is that? What do you do and why is it important?
Kindra Sheridan: So, CRA or Community Reinvestment Act is something that all banks are subject to regulatory, and what I do is monitor all of the bank's activity to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the entire community that we serve.
And it's important because we don't want to leave anyone behind and we don't want to miss any groups that need our services. There's a lot of monitoring and measuring of our bank activities, so loans, our deposits, um, what we do charitably throughout the bank, our volunteer hours. Those are all things that I monitor and make sure that we really are meeting all of the needs of the community that we serve.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah, so there's really a lot that goes into that for people who are interested in the finance Makes sense program. What is the best way, I guess I should ask first, are you. Currently entertaining, uh, new partnerships with that program. We are. Yep. And so what's the best way to contact you? Uh, if you're a school, if you are an organization whose members or, uh, clients could use that
Kindra Sheridan: program?
So currently we're trying to target audiences of 18 and over. Um, but you can email me at k sheridan at Country Club Bank dot com or you can call in and ask for me and you'll get transferred to my number and I'd be happy to talk with you about that.
Kelly Scanlon: So finance makes sense. Kindra Sheridan, uh, k Sheridan at Country Club Bank dot com.
Thank you so much for coming and sharing this today on the show and for all that you do in our community, we appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Kindra Sheridan for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Kindra joined us to talk about finance Makes Sense. A financial literacy program developed and led by Country Club Bank Associates. I. The program meets community members where they are at libraries, schools, workforce centers, and even funeral homes to provide clear, practical financial education.
The Finance Makes Sense Program exemplifies Country Club Bank's commitment to community reinvestment and financial inclusion. Whether it's helping someone understand the basics of banking or supporting a life transition, Finance Makes Sense, reflects the heart of our mission, building stronger communities through education and access.
As the President of Country Club Bank, I am proud to be personally involved in this program. Thanks for tuning in this week we're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank --Member FDIC.