Eugene Family YMCA offers free class on budgeting, financial safety

The Eugene Family YMCA is opening a free, one-hour class that puts budgeting and financial safety in the same room, a practical mix for Lane County families trying to stretch paychecks, protect savings and avoid fraud. The session is set for May 19 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Corner Hut inside the YMCA at 600 E. 24th Avenue in Eugene.

The class is open to adults, high schoolers and middle schoolers. It will be free for YMCA members and for all youth, while adult guest passes can be purchased. Advance registration is required. The YMCA says the lesson will cover budgeting basics, credit reporting, homebuying, personal information security and more, using the Financial Beginnings platform and other resources through a partnership with Oregon Community Credit Union.

That mix matters in a region where a lot of households are still working with little financial cushion. Oregon State Treasury’s 2025 Financial Wellness Scorecard found that roughly half of Oregonians do not have $500 to cover an unexpected expense, and more than a third cannot save after bills are paid. The same scorecard says more than 100,000 Oregon children live in poverty, a reminder that the basics of budgeting are not abstract lessons for many Eugene households, but immediate tools for managing rent, groceries, school costs and transportation.

The class also reflects a broader push in Oregon schools to make money management a standard part of education. The Oregon Department of Education adopted high school personal financial education standards on June 13, 2024, and those standards include budgeting, spending and money management, along with strategies to prevent fraud and personal identity theft. For families in Eugene, that means a YMCA class can reinforce what students are beginning to see in school while giving parents and caregivers a chance to learn alongside them.

That focus on financial safety is increasingly important for children and teens. The Federal Trade Commission says child identity theft can involve a child’s Social Security number, name, address or date of birth, and state consumer guidance warns that children are especially vulnerable to synthetic identity theft because fake profiles can go unnoticed for years. The YMCA says it wants young people to avoid identity fraud and protect their savings, turning a free local class into a family-wide lesson in financial resilience. Oregon Community Credit Union’s support for quarterly classes, and its earlier $100,000 OCCU Foundation gift tied to the YMCA’s Youth Learning Lab, show how local institutions are trying to fill a gap that many households feel every month.