Loretta is a resident of IC$'s founding agency, Innovative Housing Inc (IHI). She was referred to IC$ by Emma, herIHI resident service coordinator, in August 2010. Loretta wanted to build her credit and make sure she was able to save and budget her money. Early on she met with Carmina Lass, IC$'s Financial Education and Loan Program Manager, to come up with a plan to rebuild her credit and get on track with her expenses.

"Meeting with Carmina was awesome. We sat down, looked at my credit history and were able to get four items off my report," says Loretta.

Loretta then went on to strategically take out two loans over the past eight months with IC$. She also attended our Fall Financial Household Stability workshops. She now finds herself able to save money more and is slowly building her credit to work towards her life goal: purchasing a home.

"IC$ has been great for anytime I felt in hole, like when I was on maternity leave. I couldn't get rent in on time and my loan payment was also due.  IC$ worked with me to not have me be late on credit reporting and my rent. They were flexible so that my loan stayed current and they really helped me when I was in a bind."

Partner Highlight: Metropolitan Family Service
 

Metropolitan Family Service works to strengthen families and individuals while enhancing their participation in community life. They have multiple services for people of all ages from kids to seniors, that focus on education, parenting, health, mobility and independence -- and parallel to us at IC$ -- financial stability.

We spoke with Abby Becic who splits her time between two different Metropolitan Family Service programs: Ways to Work and Credit Coaching. 

Ways to Work is a national program that allows qualified working parents who are unable to find funds elsewhere and have credit barriers, qualify for loans up to $6,000 to purchase, repair or refinance a car. This critical access to reliable transportation allows a parent to get their children to school, maintain job stability and provide for their household.  

"When Ways to Work clients have an unforeseen financial emergency, like a car repair, Innovative Changes has been a great resource to refer our clients to.  IC$ can provide a loan for the repair so that the family can stay on track with work and other family commitments," said Abby.

The Ways to Work comprehensive lending process is similar to IC$'s loan program in that clients participate in budgeting and other financial education. Abby and MFS Program Coordinator, Aliza Kuperstock, are there to support their clients in the often overwhelming process of searching for, purchasing or repairing a car. 

Financial Education Galore! 

As we said, we are busy teaching lots of classes. Over the next couple of months we will be teaching several Financial Household Stability workshops in English and Spanish for residents of the Housing Authority of Portland (HAP). If you are interested in learning more about these workshops please get in touch with Carmina at [email protected].

In addition to the HAP classes, we will be hosting our own Spring series at our new convenient office at the Lloyd Center: 

Financial Household Stability Workshops: 

Day 1: Saturday, April 16  

Part 1: Making Ends Meet, 10am-12pm

Part 2: Budgeting and Saving, 12:30pm-2:30pm                  Day 2: Saturday, April 23 

Part 3: Hands-On Banking, 10am-12pm   

Part 4: Building, Repairing and Protecting Credit, 12:30pm-2:30pm

Also, we have two exciting seminars coming up which we encourage you to attend, help get the word out, suggest a topic and/or volunteer to teach one! 

Saving, Investing and Risk Management Seminar:

April 6th, 4:30-6pm

This month we'll be joined by Chris Kiichle, a financial advisor at Pacific Capital Resource Inc. Investing can be intimidating, but rewarding. Chris will give us insight on how to leverage savings in a sound and informed way. Participants will leave equiped with tools to plan ahead for a successful financial future.

* SPOTS STILL OPEN FOR THIS WEDNESDAY!

New Banking Regulations and How They Impact You!:

June 7th,  5-6:30pm

Scott R. Hartley, Branch Manager at Sterling Savings Bank, a partner of IC$ will discuss new banking regulations and how these effect you as a banked or prospective banked person. He will address consumer rights when dealing with financial institutions and more. This seminar will be great for service providers and anyone interested in learning more about how to use the banking system to your advantage and avoid excess fees. 

* Stay tuned for more details on this exciting seminar!

**These seminars are part of our ongoing monthly seminar series covering special topics of interest to our clients. For more information about our seminar visit our website here.

Our classes and seminars will be held at our new location:  

3^rd Floor of the Lloyd Center Mall (near Nordstroms), 2201 Lloyd Center, Portland

To Register: call or email Talia at (503)-943-5620/[email protected].

The classes and seminars are $5 each and $15 for all four classes. Fee waivers are available for those who qualify. 

April is National Financial Literacy Month!

 Last year in the beginning of April, President Obama declared the month to be Financial Literacy Month. In a press release he stated: