YOUR FUTURE, OUR HISTORY

VALLEY STRONG HISTORY

In 1938, a small group of dedicated and concerned teachers met for the purpose of forming a financial cooperative for school employees and their families. From these very humble beginnings, our Credit Union was founded and formed.

The first “office” was just a small room located in the library of a local high school. A single volunteer conducted all the operations, with transaction receipts kept in a shoe box. By the end of our first year, we had 141 individuals banking with us and approximately $1,300 in assets.

The Credit Union was granted federal charter as Kern County School Employees Federal Credit Union in 1940, which was later shortened to Kern School Federal Credit Union in 1969.

In 2020, the Credit Union expanded its service area outside of Kern County by opening branches in Visalia and Tulare. With this expansion, we rebranded to Valley Strong Credit Union, a name representative of the growth of the institution into the greater San Joaquin Valley.

Further growth into new markets continued through mergers with Solano First Credit Union (Solano County) and Financial Center Credit Union (San Joaquin County) in 2021.

Simply stated, a lot has changed over the years. However, our commitment to serving all of California remains the same. That’s why more than 360,000 individuals representing nearly $4 billion in assets choose to bank with us.