City Awarded $150,000 Grant to Launch South Bend Financial Empowerment Center, Offering Financial Counseling as Free Public Service

September 10, 2024

Today, the national Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund awarded the City of South Bend a $150,000 grant to support the launch of its Financial Empowerment Center. The South Bend Financial Empowerment Center (SBFEC) will offer no-cost, one-on-one financial counseling for South Bend residents and is the first of its kind in Indiana. At the SBFEC, professionally trained FEC counselors will help individuals and families with low and moderate incomes manage their finances, pay down debt, increase savings, establish, and build credit, and access safe and affordable mainstream banking products.

The City selected the Near Northwest Neighborhood, Inc. (NNN) to operate the SBFEC, following a competitive application process. The SBFEC will launch at temporary locations across the City later this year, until its permanent home at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream Center opens in 2025.

"We are thrilled to launch the South Bend Financial Empowerment Center with the support of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund," said South Bend Mayor James Mueller. "We thank the Near Northwest Neighborhood for this new partnership to empower residents throughout the city and help them achieve their financial goals and thrive."

"The SBFEC will use one-on-one, relational conversations to give clients the tools for healthy personal financial management, wealth building and future homeownership," said André Northern, Director of Community Building and Empowerment for the NNN. "Collectively these tools adhere to our goals of reducing the racial wealth gap and giving families pathways out of poverty."

In addition to the grant funding, the award provides technical assistance and resources to help City staff and the NNN as they build the SBFEC as a high-quality service for residents. The grant supplements Redevelopment Commission funding approved earlier this year for the SBFEC.

"Local leaders know first-hand the connection between family financial stability and community financial stability," said Jonathan Mintz, President, and CEO of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. "Mayor Mueller and the City of South Bend are working to join a growing national movement to bring free, high-quality financial counseling as a public service to their residents; we are proud to partner with Mayor Mueller to help residents work towards a stronger financial future."

The FEC model is being replicated nationally by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve the financial stability of low- and moderate-income households by embedding financial empowerment strategies into local government infrastructure. Financial Empowerment Centers have been implemented in over thirty municipalities throughout the United States with proven success. The FEC movement is supported by seed funder Bloomberg Philanthropies, as well as the Wells Fargo Foundation and other generous partners. To learn more about the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund and the Financial Empowerment Center model, visit fecpublic.org.