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.
• 33 families have graduated from the IDA Program.
• 25 Individuals have opened new checking and/or saving accounts.
• Over 195 clients received Money Smart classes during 2003 and 2004.
  

• 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