Public Education Committee

Credit Abuse Resistance Education

Britta Warren, Chair (Portland)

Cassie K Jones, Chair (Eugene)

Cassie K Jones, Executive Committee Liaison

Introduction to the CARE Program

Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) is a program started by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John C. Ninfo, II. Quoting from the national CARE program website:

Its goal is to alert middle school, high school and college students to the many consequences of consumer credit abuse. It is the hope of the program that students will not go down the road of consumer credit abuse once they understand: (1) the true cost of consumer credit; (2) how difficult it is to repay consumer debt incurred to buy and do things that you really can’t afford and don’t need; (3) the many consequences of financial problems, which are becoming more numerous and serious; (4) the need to have savings and how to effectively budget with a view towards needs versus wants; (5) that just maintaining debt is not being able to afford it, affording debt is being able to pay it back; and (6) it is better to live consumer debt free.

Additional information about the program is available on that web site at: http://care4yourfuture.org

There are other programs around the country, including one managed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court – Southern District of California.