Where Opportunity and Community Grow Together
Cultvar helps families move from financial understanding to financial participation through culture, storytelling, and youth leadership.
About Us
Cultivar Communities is a family-centered initiative helping families build financial confidence and long-term wealth.
Through storytelling, youth leadership, and practical tools, Cultivar helps families move from financial understanding to financial participation in everyday life.
Our flagship program, Cultivar Kids, brings culturally relevant financial learning to young people and parents in underserved communities through behavioral science, real-world learning, and family conversations.
We envision a future where every family has the tools to build wealth and wellness where neighborhoods thrive from the inside out.
We design tools and content that build generational wealth from the inside out.
Engaging content created by and for young people
Financial learning tools for youth, parents, and educators
Digital and in-person experiences rooted in behavioral science
Culturally grounded financial education that reflects real communities
Community partnerships that amplify trusted voices
A New Kind of Learning: Rooted in Culture, Built for Life
We believe financial knowledge should be accessible to every family.
We meet families where they are, in classrooms, homes, and online.
Our work is grounded in lived experience and cultural understanding. We honor the knowledge already present in families and build on it to strengthen confidence, habits, and long-term wealth.
We focus on systems that support people, families, and communities.
Our mission is to help families feel capable, confident, and empowered to build their financial futures.
Arellana Barela Levenson
Founder and CEO, Cultivar Communities
Arellana Barela Levenson leads Cultivar Communities with a blend of financial expertise, community experience, and lived family perspective. She began her career as a bank CFO, where she saw how financial systems often overlook the realities of everyday family life. Her work later expanded into community-based economic mobility initiatives, where she saw how trust, identity, and culture shape the way families engage with financial tools.
During her graduate work at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Arellana studied financial inclusion, behavioral science, and the conditions that support early financial identity. That work helped shape Cultivar’s approach, which focuses on helping families build confidence through culture, identity, and everyday financial practice.
As a mom raising five kids, she brings a grounded understanding of how money conversations actually happen at home. Her leadership reflects the combination of professional discipline and lived experience that families recognize and trust.
Arellana is a 2026 Presidential Leadership Scholar.
As Cultivar grows, our vision remains simple: helping families build wealth, wellness, and a sense of belonging in their communities.
This work is deeply personal. It is shaped by the grit, loyalty, and determination we have seen in our own families and communities.
We believe that when families have the right tools, trusted relationships, and practical knowledge, they can shape futures rooted in confidence, opportunity, and pride.
Cultivar exists to help families turn opportunity into lasting progress. We sit at the kitchen table with you.
Get Early Access to Cultivar Kids
Be the first to know when we launch our camps, tools, and community programs.
