Boone County Public Library is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a $100,000 Smart investing@your library® grant to provide financial education programs to the community.

Boone County Public Library was one of 16 public libraries, and the only one in Kentucky, selected for the grant by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation as part of Smart investing@your library®. This prestigious grant will help Boone County Public Library to provide effective, unbiased financial and investor education to the community. The Library was invited to apply for this funding opportunity and was one of 80 libraries to submit proposals.

"This generous grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation couldn't have come at a better time," said Library Director Greta Southard. "Smart investing@your library® allows us to meet a critical need for people to have information they can trust to help them arrive at a brighter financial future. We surveyed our community to discover which financial topics they wanted to learn more about and to find out how they preferred to receive the information.  We used the results from the survey to tailor our financial program outlined in the grant proposal to our community's needs and interests. We wouldn't have been able to write this grant without community feedback. Thank you, Boone County! We look forward to using the grant to create innovative programs to help you prosper!"

With the funding, the Library will partner with the Brighton Center to provide a year of financial learning experiences to families in Boone County. The initiative will be called "Earn, Spend, Save" and include collaborations with the State of Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions and Boone County Schools. Targeted programs and print resources will be implemented for all age groups, from preschoolers to senior citizens.

"Our plan is to offer programs for all ages on the same nights at the same times," said Carrie Herrmann, the Library's project coordinator for the grant. "Families will be able to participate without having to look for childcare. We want to make it easy for everyone in Boone County to participate and benefit from this grant."

The Earn, Spend, Save program will launch in August, watch for more information.

--Submitted by The Boone County Library