When Austin resident Tyra Banks
opened all the overdraft envelopes she had received over one year, she realized
she had accumulated close to $3,000 in fees.
"I was amazed," said Banks, 37,
who manages a men's clothing store. "It was so frustrating."
At her father's urging, Banks
visited the recently opened Community Savings Center at 310 N. Pulaski and
signed up for a financial education class.
"It's been an enlightenment for
me," said Banks, who learned how to balance her checkbook and keep track of what
she spends. She's now saving to start an online shoe business called "Nine And
Up" for women with higher shoe sizes through a program that will award her $2
for every $1 she saves.
The Community Savings Center,
which opened in January, is a collaboration between Bethel New Life, a
non-profit community development corporation; Park National Bank, and Thrivent
Financial for Lutherans, a Minneapolis-based financial services
organization.
The Austin center, which claims
to be the first of its kind in Illinois, brings together financial education and
financial products like the "Smart Savers" program; free checking accounts;
low-cost check cashing; small business loans, and more traditional banking
products like CDs.
"This is a community that needs
financial security and education," said Dennis Gorski, managing partner at
Thrivent Financial, which gave $2.6 million to the Savings Center's educational
programs and services. "If we can slowly change habits, person by person, we
help them gain access to the American dream."
The Smart Savers individual
development account program matches participants' savings and requires that
clients enroll in a financial education course. Participants who save $2,000 can
receive a $4,000 match. Savings can only be used to buy a first home, start or
expand a small business or finance a post-secondary education.
"The goal of Smart Savers is to
help working families make mortgage payments, not rent payments, own a business,
not punch a clock, gain an education to grow their opportunities, not to be
stuck in a dead-end job," said Steven McCullough, Bethel New Life's
CEO.
Participation in the Smart
Savers Program is limited to those with incomes no greater than 200 percent of
the poverty line, which is about $35,000 a year for a family of four.
Thrivent contributed $1 million
to the Smart Savers program, with another $1 million coming from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. If the money runs out, "we'll pony up
again," Gorski said.
