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Key Foundation and East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation Kick Off Financial Literacy Program
Key Foundation and East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation Kick Off Financial Literacy Program
Published 11-28-06
Submitted by KeyBank
Thomas E. Tulodzieski, president of KeyBank's Eastern Ohio District, and Grady Appleton, executive director of EANDC, today said Akron will be one of four cities to implement the first phase of a new financial literacy training program for low- to moderate-income families.
Entitled Credit Yourself: The Way to Financial Fitness, the new program is designed to educate individuals and families on basic components of personal financial management to help eliminate barriers to mainstream banking and home ownership. In Akron, the program will be funded by the Key Foundation with a $10,000 grant to EANDC. Albany, NY; Denver, CO; and Portland, OR also will implement Phase One of the program, which Key Foundation expects to roll out to some 20 KeyBank communities nationally over the next three years.
Credit Yourself: The Way To Financial Fitness, a four-year $1,000,000 national project, will be implemented in the Akron area over the next 12 months. During the program, EANDC will provide financial literacy classes to low- to moderate-income individuals. The classes will cover personal financial management, including understanding credit and its uses, managing credit, creating a spending plan, repairing credit reports, and setting and achieving financial goals. The objectives of the program are that participants will learn to use credit wisely, improve credit scores, develop and follow savings or debt reduction plans, and develop and follow a budget.
"Without information and guidance, many Americans miss opportunities to make the most of the biggest investment of their lives or worse, fall into mortgage traps that eventually lead to foreclosure and financial ruin," said Appleton of EANDC, "Personal debt is at an all-time high. Mortgage and loan products are becoming increasingly complex and risky. And gaps in wealth and homeownership persist."
Statistics collected by NeighborWorks America confirm that:
"Key is committed to helping individuals eliminate barriers to mainstream banking and home ownership and educating them on the signs and dangers of predatory lending," said KeyBank's Tulodzieski. "The Credit Yourself program will be a great way to help Key deepen this commitment in Eastern Ohio."
The announcement of the new program is timely. The number of consumers who stand to benefit from homeownership education and counseling is growing at a pace too fast to serve, creating a 'counseling gap,' according to NeighborWorks America. At the current rate, from 2005 to 2025, 15.8 million first-time buyers will go uncounseled, including 3.2 million African Americans, 3 million Hispanics, and 6.3 million lower-income households.
Credit Yourself: The Way to Financial Fitness fits with Key's efforts to encourage people and communities to achieve economic self-sufficiency through strategic philanthropic investment in financial education and workforce development programs fostering diversity and inclusion. This latest endeavor aligns with KeyBank's efforts to provide a complete financial education curriculum online through Money Made Easy http://www.key.com/moneymadeeasy. The multilingual Web portal features tools and information about money, health, jobs, school and family, and is useful to for anyone seeking financial independence, regardless of how much money they earn.
East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation
East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation was formed in 1982 by East Akron Community House and the Council of Block Club Presidents. The purpose of this collaboration was to improve housing conditions in East Akron. Since then, the organization has expanded its services to include energy services and economic development programs
Key Foundation:
Key Foundation is a private foundation funded by KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY). Annual grants and matching gifts are given by the foundation to charitable organizations in the communities that Key serves. Grants from Key Foundation principally support organizations and institutions that promote economic independence through financial education and workforce initiatives that foster diversity and inclusion. Visit https://www.key.com/html/A-12.html to access Key's 2005 Report on Philanthropic Investment, or download the report directly at https://www.key.com/pdf/philanthropicir.pdf.
Contact Key Foundation Senior Program Officer Quentin McCorvey at 216.689.5505, or Quentin_Mccorvey@Keybank.com, for more information about corporate grants. Visit the KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) page on Corporate Social Responsibility Wire at www.csrwire.com/companyprofile?id=993 for a compilation of news releases about the company relative to philanthropic investment, diversity, community development, corporate governance, environment, business ethics, human rights, and workplace issues.
KeyCorp
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $95 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally.
KeyBank
KeyBank
KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $187 billion at June 30, 2024.
Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank Member FDIC.
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