Availa Bank reported that nearly a year after launching its financial education outreach program, it has reached more than 4,000 people with financial literacy lessons across the state.

Through the various financial education outreach efforts of the last year, such as Innovate U, Kickoff to College Night, Teach Children To Save Day, and a number of senior fraud presentations, Availa Bank has shown it’s committed to ensuring all age groups have the tools they need for financial success.

These efforts are spearheaded by Lisa Irlbeck, the current marketing director at Availa Bank, who has recently additionally been named the community education and outreach director.

Irlbeck sits on a Federal Trade Commission subcommittee, Stopping Scams Against Older Adults, which focuses on expanding consumer education efforts, improving industry training on scam prevention, identifying innovative or high-tech methods to detect and stop scams, and developing research on consumer or employee engagement to reduce fraud.

Her involvement in the subcommittee has allowed Irlbeck to expand the bankes educational offerings and complete firsthand research on the resources that are most useful to those impacted by financial scams and fraud.

“It is such a privilege to work for a bank that values the communities they serve like Availa Bank does,” Irlbeck said. “Hosting financial education events such as these are just another way of staying true to our mission statement. A huge shout out goes to Lindsey Smith, the marketing assistant. She is the reason we have been able to accomplish the college nights and so many other financial education events.”

Jeff Scharfenkamp, president and CEO of Availa Bank, fully supports Irlbeck’s efforts.

“Lisa has done an outstanding job of bringing financial education to the forefront of what we do as a community bank,” Scharfenkamp said. “Too often people fall victim to fraud and education plays an important role in prevention of this terrible form of financial abuse.”

Availa Bank has branches in Fort Dodge and surrounding communities.