Education Programs
The WealthBuilder Partnership Program
CWCID applies a strong, action-oriented personal finance curriculum as a foundation upon which to develop tailored financial education programs to meet the diverse needs of a wide range of populations in our community. We adhere to a set of program design procedures which ensure that we effectively adapt our core curriculum to the specific needs and situation of the audience, creating a seamless connection between our content and that of our partners' existing program. And we then commit to long-term relationships with program graduates, providing each client with individualized counseling to assist in the pursuit of goals established in their personalized financial plan.
CWCID is dedicated to the individualized counseling component of our program, as the most critical and meaningful element of our model. All course graduates receive intensive, individualized counseling which results in a personalized financial plan, detailing the steps required to achieve long-term financial goals. These recommendations are then linked to available financial services, such as savings accounts or credit establishment loans, so that a clients view their plans as reasonable, concrete, and achievable; recommendations offered in tandem with real financial resources.
CWCID believes such concrete and personalized services, complemented with our group workshops and credit union services, are jointly what enable us to have an impact on individuals' lives. Any service offered in isolation provides a client with inadequate resources and support given the giant barriers to financial stability faced by low-income families.
Today our WealthBuilder Program is housed in PARTNERING AGENCIES throughout New York City, serving approximately 1,000 individuals each year. These programs reach the most marginalized members of our society, including public assistance recipients, ex-offenders, domestic violence survivors and the formerly homeless. We are proud of our accomplishments to date. We have earned an 85% graduation rate. We have also demonstrated real impact on individuals' financial behaviors and status, with our unbanked graduates opening savings accounts, improving their credit scores and reporting decreased usage of money orders, check cashers and loan sharks.
Learn about how we can PARTNER WITH YOU.
The Single Stop Program
In 2006, The Robin Hood Foundation selected CWCID to provide financial counseling in its Single Stop Program. The Single Stop Program offers free, one-on-one confidential benefits, legal and financial counseling to low-income families across New York City. The Single Stop Program has given us expertise providing a demand-driven, individualized financial counseling service which addresses concrete financial concerns and which engages the client in a more comprehensive financial assessment and plan. Today we serve 1,100 individuals annually at 15 Single Stop sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The Single Stop Program at Riker's Island
In 2007 CWCID became part of an exciting pilot initiative to bring the Single Stop model to Riker's Island to serve male and female inmates. CWCID serves as a subcontractor to Center for Urban Community Services, with a full-time counselor providing financial counseling services in tandem with CUCS, the Legal Aid Society and a team of other service providers. In the program's first year, we served over 300 individuals in this program, and are now actively working on an effective follow-up services model to continue these client relationships post-release.
The Credit Union Education Program
At the core of CWCID's vision is that financial services institutions are the most appropriate environment in which to effect positive financial change. A successful program recognizes the inseparability of financial products, financial services and financial education. The packaging of financial concepts--alongside tangible financial services which relate to an individuals' real and immediate needs--is vital to stimulating positive financial stability and growth.
Our Credit Union Education Program, embedded in Neighborhood Trust, tests this hypothesis--providing an innovative financial education format that is rooted in financial services rather than only delivered in a classroom removed from participants' own financial experiences.
Neighborhood Trust members are at a critical point in their quest for financial stability. For over 40% of its constituency, Neighborhood Trust represents the first relationship with a financial institution. These individuals have taken the first step towards asset accumulation goals, yet remain ill-equipped to avoid the many predatory financial options and apply available resources towards real wealth creation.
CWCID's financial education program serves as the perfect complement to the credit union's core competency in delivering financial services. CWCID capitalizes on credit union members' "first financial step" and injects financial education assessment and referral services into credit union operations, creating a seamless avenue to its more comprehensive financial education and counseling services.
CWCID ensures that credit union members are equipped with the full range of financial skills necessary to truly take advantage of the financial resources newly available to them. Our goal is that all credit union members have the broader financial knowledge and self-confidence so necessary to apply financial services to the achievement of long-term wealth creation goals.
CWCID also believes that this holistic approach will also encourage greater awareness of the power of participation in a cooperative institution, generating real empowerment regarding financial services and broader community impact.
School Banking
CWCID launched the School Banking program in 1998 out of a firm conviction that financial literacy is an essential tool for breaking the cycle of poverty. The concepts and values which are key to economic empowerment can best be imparted by integration into the school environment and both its academic and civic activities. Among immigrant communities, especially, children often serve as a gateway to information for their families. School Banking therefore serves as a catalyst for minimizing the mistrust of financial institutions that is a primary barrier to banking participation in our community.
CWCID's School Banking program currently serves 5th and 6th graders in five local schools. We invite students to become members of Neighborhood Trust and begin saving. As an incentive, we offer $1 to every student to open a no-fee savings account. Biweekly throughout the rest of the year, a Neighborhood Trust teller visits the participating schools to collect deposits, usually ranging from 50 cents to 10 dollars. Students are given passbooks to record their transactions, and they are sent monthly statements of activity from the credit union.
CWCID then builds on this school-based banking experience to impart basic financial literacy concepts via a 10-hour financial education curriculum.
Our School Banking vision is that this powerful financial education model is adopted throughout our school district in Upper Manhattan such that financial concepts are imparted via academic and experiential learning as part of the school's regular curriculum; and via parental involvement which acknowledges the benefits of educating parents alongside their children.
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