How one credit union helped a member through life’s toughest moments
Through life’s ups and downs, Northern Communities Credit Union (NCCU) has been there for longtime member Diane McComesky. In a recent America’s Credit Unions Blog post, she shares several examples of how the credit union found a way to help her in times of need.
When McComesky’s husband died, the credit union helped her stay in the home where they had lived together. Later, when the home needed extensive plumbing repairs, the credit union helped set up a home equity line of credit and ensure it was approved quickly, helping to swiftly resolve the problem.
Before the credit union even built its own financial literacy program, NCCU connected McComesky with financial counseling when a bad accident led to her racking up credit card debt.
The same member-first ethos that has shaped McComesky’s experience as a member of NCCU now drives one of the credit union’s most ambitious initiatives. Over the past five years, the credit union has built a dedicated financial literacy program that reaches far beyond its membership, now serving area high schools and the St. Louis County addiction recovery court in Minnesota.
“This is something I hold near and dear to my heart, because I know there’s a need out there, with our students, with adults, with people sustaining loss and divorce. They need us, and we want to walk those journeys with them,” said Trina Hoff, the credit union’s president/CEO.
Hoff started as a 19-year-old part-time teller at the credit union and has worked through every department in the three decades since. “We drank the credit union Kool-Aid here,” she said. “Every one of us has. It’s the credit union difference. We are making an impact on our community.”
For credit unions searching for a way to articulate the credit union difference to prospective members, McComesky’s message is simple: it starts with people who know your name and ends with people who refuse to let you face a crisis alone.
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