Financial Literacy

Urban Philanthropies’ financial literacy workshops provide information on how to save and invest wisely, understand personal credit, build wealth, and avoid excessive debt.
Today, Americans face high levels of consumer debt, low savings rates, and growing bankruptcy rates, particularly in urban areas.
These problems have raised concerns among policymakers and community leaders about the inadequacy of financial literacy among the U.S. population, particularly low-income and young people, and the impact of this lack of financial literacy on the ability of Americans to manage their finances, accumulate wealth and build assets.
Compounding this issue is the growing reliance of American consumers on non-mainstream financial services (such as pay-day lenders and check cashers), which is resulting in the proliferation of predatory lenders and other high-risk institutions in low-income communities.
Financial education programs are essential to help people develop positive savings habits and accumulate assets to put them on a pathway to financial stability. The audience for this class are residents who are in search of financial education, coaching, and support to build their financial capability to achieve financial stability and long-term financial health.
The goal here is to offer financial education to help reinforce learnings and to help residents identify their financial and life goals, understand their own financial situation and patterns in relation to those goals, and a variety of resources and steps they can take to reach their goals.
The core courses cover the fundamentals such as goal setting, budgeting, cash flow management, banking, savings, how to navigate the financial services marketplace, and predatory lending avoidance.