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Memphis Area Office - Money Smart Model Sites
(Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee)
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Contact: |
Clinton Vaughn, Community Affairs Officer
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
5100 Poplar Avenue, Suite 1900
Memphis, Tennessee 38137
(901) 818-5706
(800) 210-6354 |
Community Trust Bank Money Smart Model Site (CTB)
The Community Trust Bank Money Smart Model Site (CTB), located in Choudrant, Louisiana, is spearheaded by CTB. CTB originally formed the model site partnership with the City of West Monroe Tanner Center (WMTC) and Renewal, Inc. In 2003, CTB expanded the partnership to promote financial education with the addition of the YWCA of Northeast Louisiana, which has locations in Monroe, Louisiana, and the City of West Monroe Public Housing Authority. The model site ties financial education to the opportunity to establish Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), homeownership, job training, and self-sufficiency training programs for individuals moving from welfare to work, newly employed persons, victims of domestic violence, ex-offenders recently released from prisons and underserved low-and moderate-income individuals.
Partners
The WMTC is the Department of Labor's One Stop Center in West Monroe, Louisiana. The WMTC received a capacity building grant and a matching funds grant from Foundation for the Mid South to establish and offer IDAs to qualified residents in the West Monroe area. Renewal, Inc. is a nonprofit faith-based organization providing job training and economic development, which also received an emerging program grant and a matching funds grant from Foundation for the Mid South and is targeting the impoverished Mississippi Delta Region. CTB is a $350 million financial institution with eleven branches operating in north Louisiana. CTB administers IDAs for the Money Smart graduates of the Tanner Center. Renewal, Inc., located in south Monroe, Louisiana, is promoting social and economic development by utilizing a holistic approach to achieve self-sufficiency. The YWCA and West Monroe Housing Authority provide instructors and financial education efforts under the auspices of complimentary programs within their organizations for the model site target audiences. The West Monroe Public Housing Authority is using the Money Smart Program to teach financial education to persons enrolled in HUD's Family Self-Sufficiency Program. Once completed, graduates are eligible to enroll in the IDA program administered by Community Trust Bank. For a listing of model site partners please select Financial Institutions or Other Partners.
Accomplishments
- Over 100 persons have attended Money Smart sessions taught by CTB personnel, with 61 persons receiving Money Smart Certificates of Completion.
- To-date, 25 persons have enrolled in the IDA program offered through WMTC and CTB.
- Five persons met their IDA requirements by completing Money Smart classes, went on to save $1,000, received matching funds of $4,000 and became homeowners.
Conway Collaborative
A Money Smart collaborative effort was formed to serve the community of Conway, Arkansas to provide financial education to low- to moderate-income (LMI) individuals. This collaboration was formed as a result of the executive director of Bethlehem House asking local banks to help teach financial education to the constituents of this battered women's shelter. After the initial contact with the banks, Bethlehem House invited the Conway Housing Authority, Conway Habitat for Humanity, Community Action Program for Central Arkansas, and the Conway Adult Education Center to furnish students to attend these financial education sessions.
Plans are for the banks to offer Money Smart twice each year and have tentatively scheduled another series of Money Smart classes for Spring, 2006. Also, the collaborative would like to expand to other organizations in the Conway, Arkansas area. The group will also explore other programs designed to assist the LMI population, including individual development accounts, the earned income tax credit, and the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund.
Partners
Representatives from six banks with offices in Conway agreed to partner together to teach the Money Smart curriculum. Representatives from these banks divided up the Money Smart curriculum among themselves and agreed to teach two modules per week each Tuesday evening beginning April 2005. For a listing of model site partners please select Financial Institutions or Other Partners.
Accomplishments
- Thirteen students from Habitat for Humanity and Bethlehem House attended these initial sessions and received Money Smart Certificates of Completion.
- Habitat's executive director has adopted the Money Smart curriculum as a requirement for potential first-time homeowners enrolled in Habitat's homebuyer program.
- Each of the participating banks has agreed to accept Money Smart Certificates from graduates to open savings accounts.
Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, LA (NHS of New Orleans)
NHS of New Orleans provides comprehensive services for first-time homebuyers and existing homeowners through counseling, classroom training, loan packaging, and construction management services. Its mission is to help revitalize New Orleans neighborhoods by increasing the number of homeowners and reducing the number of substandard or vacant houses through renovation into sustainable and productive homeownership. In addition to its citywide efforts, NHS of New Orleans engages in comprehensive community development within targeted neighborhoods to improve the quality of life and promote commercial redevelopment.
NHS of New Orleans was founded in 1976 as a private, non-profit housing corporation. NHS of New Orleans employs a holistic approach to revitalization, bringing lenders, government entities, and nonprofit providers together to both reduce the number of substandard and vacant houses in New Orleans and increase home ownership opportunities for families who might not normally qualify through traditional methods. Although home ownership is the core program through which NHS of New Orleans fulfills its mission, neighborhood stabilization is also carried out with commercial revitalization and by increasing the involvement of residents, businesses, and schools in their community. In 1992, NHS joined the Neighborworks® Campaign for Homeownership. NHS of New Orleans is the only organization in New Orleans that provides Full Cycle lending, comprehensive programs to assist first-time homebuyers and existing homeowners obtain financing to create sustainable homeownership opportunities city-wide.
As a full service center, NHS' HomeOwnership Center provides the following services: pre-qualification counseling, home ownership training, financial fitness training, low interest loans, foreclosure prevention loans, Individual Development Accounts, downpayment/closing cost assistance, NHS Acquisition Rehab Loan Product, home inspections, construction management, post-purchase education, and affordable homes for sale. The Money Smart curriculum serves as a core instructional element during the financial fitness training classes that are offered monthly. In addition to Money Smart classes, clients are also able to access the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) for those who are eligible, take advantage of Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC).
Partners
NHS of New Orleans was created in 1976 and believes that partnerships between local residents, financial institutions, businesses, and local government working together can stop decline, promote reinvestment, and restore pride and confidence in urban neighborhoods. NHS New Orleans works in partnership with local lending institutions in New Orleans to provide mortgages for their homeownership program. The lenders have developed programs that assist first-time homebuyers purchase homes in New Orleans. For a listing of model site partners please select Financial Institutions or Other Partners.
Accomplishments
- 230 families have graduated from NHS's financial fitness classes.
- 31 Section 8 families have become first time homebuyers.
- In 2003 NHS had 96 families enrolled in the IDA program and 22 had purchased homes.
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33 families have graduated from the IDA Program.
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25 Individuals have opened new checking and/or saving accounts.
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Over 195 clients received Money Smart classes during 2003 and 2004.
Crowley’s Ridge Development Council, Inc.,
Jonesboro, AR
Crowley’s Ridge Development Council, Inc. (CRDC) serves
eight counties in northeast Arkansas: Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Greene,
Jackson, Poinsett, St. Francis, and Woodruff. This service area has a total
population of 271,973 and 44 percent of the population live in rural areas.
CRDC served over 18,000 families in fiscal year 2006, with 94 percent of the
families served having incomes at or below 125 percent of the poverty level.
Thirty-six percent of CRDC customers are defined as the “working poor” and 24
percent receive Social Security. Many low-income persons in the service area
cite the lack of transportation as a key impediment to accessing services.
One of a network of Community Action Agencies serving
Arkansas, CRDC offers the following programs to help meet the needs of
individuals living in northeast Arkansas:
- Child Development,
including Head Start and the Child Care Food Program.
- Human Services,
including the Family Enrichment Program, Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP), Assurance 16 (energy conservation education), Emergency
Food and Shelter, HOME and Self-Help Housing Programs, and the
Weatherization Assistance Program.
- Aging Services,
including Home Meal Delivery, Transportation, and ElderChoices.
- Substance Abuse Services
Money Smart & CRDC’s Individual Development Account
Program
Since 2005, CRDC has
implemented Money Smart to teach financial literacy to those who have utilized
several of the programs offered, including the Family Enrichment Program, LIHEAP,
and Assurance 16. Further, CRDC administers an Individual Development Account
(IDA) matched-savings program for low-income persons hoping to own their own
home or repair their existing one, pursue secondary education, or start a small
business. Money Smart has been utilized as the required financial education
component of the IDA Program.
In fiscal year 2006, CRDC staff
has taught Money Smart to 157 individuals. Banks participating in the IDA
program by making financial contributions and/or offering savings accounts to
IDA participants include:
- Liberty Bank of
Arkansas, Jonesboro, AR
First National
Bank, Paragould, AR
The First National
Bank of Wynne, AR
Merchants &
Planters Bank, Newport, AR
The Bank of
Augusta, Augusta, AR
Regions Bank,
Jonesboro, AR
Simmons First Bank
of Jonesboro, AR
BancorpSouth,
Jonesboro, AR
First Delta Bank,
Marked Tree, AR
The IDA Program administered by
CRDC operates under two separate programs providing matching funds: Assets for
Independence (AFI) and Foundation for the Mid South (FMS). As of December 31,
2006, 32 participants were enrolled in the AFI program and three graduates
achieved their savings goal and will use their funds for secondary education.
Under FMS on the same date, 18 participants were enrolled, ten graduates
achieved their savings goals for home repair, and one graduate achieved their
savings goal for secondary education.
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