The Cooperative Trust is looking for 15 young credit unionleaders to crash CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference for thefirst time.

Adding a new layer to the experience, as part of the inauguralevent, the team of 15 Crashers, will attend a day-long DesignThinking Workshop led by Julie Norvaisas, designresearcher/strategist, in a bid to apply design thinking methodsand theory to spark innovation to solve real-world problems.

With a focus on community development, over the course of theweek, the Crashers will work on a viable business concept and createsomething 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, May4.

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

“The unbanked and under-banked are a dreadfully underservedmarket; they commonly fall prey to predatory business practices andstruggle to deal with financial transactions that most of us takefor granted. Together the group will understand their needs andmotivations and discuss the constraints that make it difficult toserve them in traditional financial services businesses, such ascredit unions, so we can rise to the challenge,” saidNorvaisas.

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

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