IABG has joined forces with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to promote financial empowerment to low and moderate income residents living across Illinois. Using the CFPB’s Your Money, Your Goals: A Financial Empowerment Toolkit for Social Services Programs, IABG aims to equip front-line social service workers and government agency staff with information and tools that may increase their clients’ financial capabilities.
Your Money, Your Goals is a comprehensive toolkit and accompanying training that helps social service agencies, legal aid program staff and community volunteers provide the people they serve with information on various financial topics. Whether someone wants to start saving for emergencies, learn how to improve their credit, build a plan to pay down debt, or just stretch their money a little further, Your Money, Your Goals can help.
In April, IABG & the CFPB facilitated a train-the-trainer for about 30 caseworkers from eleven organizations in Illinois. These caseworkers will, in-turn, train their colleagues and partners in the toolkit.
Additionally, IABG will be hosting Your Money, Your Goals trainings in at least four communities across the state. The first of these trainings will take place in Champaign on July 28th. An additional training is being planned for Rockford in the Fall.
Front-line staff that complete the training will be equipped to share basic information and tools on setting financial goals, saving for emergencies, tracking and managing income and spending, budgeting, credit, debt, and using consumer financial products and services. They will also be equipped to refer consumers to certified credit and debt counselors and other community resources when they require specialized assistance.
If your community is interested in attending or co-hosting a a Your Money Your Goals training, please email Lucy Mullany.
Our local partners in this initiative are: ABC Bank, Bethel New Life Inc., Center for Changing Lives, Heartland Human Care Services, Ladder Up, LAF, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Inc, North Lawndale Employment Network, Northwest Side Housing Center, PODER, and the St. Elizabeth Credit Union.