New York, NY, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners, a nonprofit social enterprise and national leader in financial counseling, was selected by the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund as a technical assistance and training provider to its partner cities offering free financial counseling as part of FEC Public. The CFE Fund, a national nonprofit organization that partners with mayors and local government leaders to improve the financial well-being of their low and moderate-income residents, launched FEC Public to scale professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a public service.
Neighborhood Trust will assist the CFE Fund in training counselors at professionally-staffed Financial Empowerment Centers in cities nationwide. Neighborhood Trust will provide training and tools to support the delivery of this proven model of financial counseling that is at the cutting edge of the field’s best practices. Through its FEC Public platform, the CFE Fund will work with municipal partners to launch Financial Empowerment Centers in cohorts of new cities, creating unprecedented scale and demonstrating the impact municipal governments can have on their residents by embedding financial empowerment into public services.
This collaboration represents an exciting new stage in the relationship between Neighborhood Trust and the CFE Fund. Since its partnership with Neighborhood Trust began in 2013, the CFE Fund has worked with dozens of municipal partners to establish best-in-class financial counseling programs. These programs are based on the innovative model of municipal-based financial counseling pioneered by the City of New York in partnership with Neighborhood Trust and others. Since 2008, Neighborhood Trust has worked with the NYC Office of Financial Empowerment to deliver best-in-class services, integrated into trusted settings such as community-based organizations, credit unions, the workplace, and government agencies to make financial counseling accessible, relevant and actionable. Recognized by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg as one of the City’s most innovative organizations, Neighborhood Trust is driving evolution in this emerging field by weaving behavioral economics insights into its counseling model and delivering a proven combination of trusted financial guidance coupled with connection to safe, affordable financial products.
“Being selected by the CFE Fund for this opportunity is a validation of the high quality of our services and our position as a national leader in the financial empowerment space,” said Neighborhood Trust CEO Justine Zinkin. “Through our work with the City of New York, we have developed a strong capacity for technical assistance in this field and we’re excited to work with the CFE Fund to bring our model of financial empowerment to other cities throughout the country.”
“Financial issues are so complex – and so important – that we believe that financial counseling should be available one-on-one as a free public service and delivered by a trained professional,” said Jonathan Mintz, President and CEO, Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. “Our mayoral partners across the country agree, and as we work with them to open their own Financial Empowerment Center initiatives across the country, Neighborhood Trust is the perfect partner to help ensure counseling excellence.”
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About Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners
Neighborhood Trust is a nonprofit social enterprise empowering workers to take control of their finances and achieve financial health. With more than 20 years of financial counseling experience, we blend our trusted financial guidance with innovative technology solutions and actionable financial products to help workers’ paychecks go further. Neighborhood Trust embeds our services where workers get paid, access financial services and make financial decisions. Annually we reach more than 10,000 low- and moderate-income workers across the country. Today, our Trusted Advisor workplace financial benefit service is in 29 states and includes customers such as Staples, FreshDirect, and Allen Health Care. For more information, visit www.neighborhoodtrust.org.