The Cooperative Trust is looking for 15 young credit union leaders to crash CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference for the first time.

Adding a new layer to the experience, as part of the inaugural event, the team of 15 Crashers, will attend a day-long Design Thinking Workshop led by Julie Norvaisas, design researcher/strategist, in a bid to apply design thinking methods and theory to spark innovation to solve real-world problems.

With a focus on community development, over the course of the week, the Crashers will work on a viable business concept and create something new and applicable in the credit union system. Pre-conference assignments will be required.

The ACUC is set for June 17-19 in San Diego. Applications are due Friday, May 4.

 According to Norvaisas, the time is ripe for credit unions to be bold.

“The unbanked and under-banked are a dreadfully underserved market; they commonly fall prey to predatory business practices and struggle to deal with financial transactions that most of us take for granted. Together the group will understand their needs and motivations and discuss the constraints that make it difficult to serve them in traditional financial services businesses, such as credit unions, so we can rise to the challenge,” said Norvaisas.

In addition to Crash the ACUC, The Cooperative Trust has three national and four regional events planned along with year two of The Collider innovation tournament.

The Cooperative Trust is a grassroots organization hosted by the Filene Research Institute and supported by CUNA Mutual Group. The Cooperative Trust connects and enable young people fighting for the future of socially-responsible finance through meet-ups, mentorships, and collective action.