Partners

DeKalb Cooperative Extension Service personnel and volunteers from financial institutions offer Money Smart classes at the DeKalb Workforce Center, DeKalb Cooperative Extension, Latin American Association and Plaza Fiesta community room. All First Account Program participants who complete the six-part consumer education workshop series are awarded an FDIC Money Smart certificate. The certificates can be taken to banking partners to help them open a low-cost banking account. Model Site partners also offer consumers access to other services and programs such as: the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA), employment training, individual development accounts and homeownership programs. For a listing of model site partners please select Financial Institutions or Other Partners.

Accomplishments

• In 2005 over 600 new banking relationships were established.
  
  
• Operation Hope's Banking on our Future and Habitat Atlanta joined with the model site.
  
  
• Continue the Youth and Homeownership IDAs along with VITA.
  
  
• DeKalb Extension (lead educator for model site) is the state licensee to offer E Fund's Get Checking (ChexSystem) second chance education program. Offering a pilot version in Georgia only that incorporates the consumer protection module - Keep It Safe - as part of the required 6 hours of Get Checking.
  
  
• A monthly schedule of classes and instructors is made available to model site partners. The Develop and Education Group (D&E) delivers Money Smart exclusively for consumers interested in banking with SouthTrust. Straight Forward Inc, partners with Wachovia, non-exclusively, to provide Money Smart to continuing education students at Georgia Perimeter College, a two-year non-residential college with two campuses in DeKalb.
  
  
• 351 individuals received Money Smart graduation certificates, from which 67 opened savings and/or checking accounts from January through June 2003. Two self-employed business owners that were previously unbanked opened checking accounts upon completion of Money Smart classes.
  
  
• Since inception, Money Smart classes have been expanded into an additional Atlanta metro area - Clayton County, Georgia.
  
  
• VITA has been offered from DeKalb Workforce Center and two other partners' sites for three tax seasons. Money Smart classes are scheduled concurrently at one site to allow clients to expedite the graduation and account opening process.
  
  
• The Workforce Investment Board approved the DeKalb Workforce Center to provide Money Smart in conjunction with employment training. Youth between the ages of 16 and 21 are offered Money Smart as part of the Job Readiness Program.
  
  
• United Way, a model site partner, launched a Youth Individual Development Account (IDA) program for high school students. Students elect whether to use the 2:1 match for post secondary education or microenterprise. Students have income limits, GPA and community service requirements to meet. Money Smart is provided by the D & E group, hosted at the DeKalb Cooperative Extension offices and accounts maintained by Washington Mutual.
  
  
• Four Money Smart graduates who were linked with a model site partner, Decatur/DeKalb Housing Authority's Family Self-Sufficiency program, have purchased homes.
  
  

Neighborhood Housing Services of St. Petersburg Model Site

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (NRC) agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the FDIC to use the Money Smart curriculum in twenty-four of its local non-profit organizations around the country. The Neighborhood Housing Services of St. Petersburg Model Site, one of the NRC's local non-profit affiliates, is a partnership that includes financial institutions, federal entities, community-based organizations, local government and local media.

Money Smart classes are taught at various locations throughout the city by instructors from the St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services, the Pinellas County Extension Services, bank partners, and volunteers from the community. The target population consists primarily of low-and-moderate income individuals, including minorities and women. Outcomes of graduates range from establishing a bank account to home ownership. Participants also receive information on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and are directed to an IRS Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site during tax season. Two hours of individual counseling are also included in the program.

During 2005, three Money Smart train-the-trainer sessions have been conducted in St. Petersburg, which were sponsored by coalition partners. Train-the-trainer sessions have been co-instructed by FDIC and Federal Reserve Bank employees. Subsequently, Money Smart classes have been taught in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. A new partner, Asian Neighborhood Family Center, is using the Vietnamese Money Smart modules in providing financial education to community members and the YMCA-Highpoint will be using the Spanish Money Smart modules to teach financial education.

Partners

Financial institutions provide classroom instructors and access to low-cost/no-cost accounts for students who complete the Money Smart classes. Other partners provide instructors, client referrals, outreach/publicity, and program planning support. For a listing of model site partners please select Financial Institutions or Other Partners.

Accomplishments

• In collaboration with the IRS, seven VITA sites were operated and associated with the Pinellas Wealth Building Coalition, the St. Petersburg NHS, and other coalition partners during the recent tax year. During 2006, 2,006 tax returns were processed at these sites, resulting in Earned Income Tax Credit refunds totaling $1,243,156.



• NeighborWorks America and the Internal Revenue Service recognized the partnership between Pinellas County Wealth Building Coalition and St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services as one of the three best Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) coalitions in the nation.



• Between June 1, 2005 and May 10, 2006, St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services conducted twelve 10-hour financial education classes, with 200 participants, including 121 families with 244 children. Between January 2003 and December of 2006, over 1000 students graduated from financial education workshops, where all ten Money Smart modules were taught.

 
• Since 2003, over 350 individuals have became homeowners after participating in the St. Petersburg NHS financial education workshops, which includes 48 individuals during between June 1, 2005 and May 10, 2006.
   
• The St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services was a 2004 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Achievement Award winner.
   
• The St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services was able to engage a subcontractor to expand the instructor base that offers classes for 2004.



• 33 bank accounts were opened with Wachovia, AmSouth, and Bank of America between January 2003 and February 2004.