While the national savings rate is reportedly less than zero, low- to moderate-income families are particularly challenged in amassing wealth when faced with banking products and services that don’t meet their needs and often carry high fees.
Financial education helps individuals by improving their knowledge and skills related to earning, spending, budgeting, saving, and borrowing. It can also help families understand and make informed choices from among the full range of options offered by financial institutions. Members of Step Up’s Financial Educators Consortium provide financial counseling, coaching, and classes on topics such as how to improve credit, manage money, and establish a savings schedule.
In 2009, Step Up partnered with collaborative member Consumer Credit Counseling Services to coordinate and provide financial education training at community centers in high-poverty census tracts, through a Center for Working Families pilot program, and at employment sites for low-wage workers.
Savannah is also a member, along with the cities of San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami, San Antonio, and Seattle, of the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) coalition. CFE brings together municipal governments that are advancing innovative “financial empowerment” initiatives.
CFE defines “financial empowerment” as a set of approaches designed to help low-income families stabilize their financial lives. These programs promote boosting income by decreasing expenses, reducing debt, and encouraging savings. By teaching people to manage their resources and avoid bad debt, creating strategies for saving and building assets, and ensuring that all consumers can get appropriate financial products and services, financial empowerment initiatives provide practical solutions for working families.
