The City of Pittsburgh and Neighborhood Allies will soon hire and deploy financial coaches that will be available across the city and free to use for all Pittsburghers.The City and Neighborhood Allies partnered with Cities for Financial Empowerment, a non-profit group from New York dedicated to financial inclusion, to create a plan to implement the Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) model in Pittsburgh. The FEC is a free financial coaching service available to all City residents, and is due to launch in 2019.
The Pittsburgh Financial Empowerment Center will be operated by Advantage Credit Counseling to hire and deploy coaches and partner with community organizations across the city to deliver recurring professional financial coaching services. Pittsburgh was asked to be in the second cohort of twelve cities to join the Cities for Financial Empowerment coalition, first developed in 2013 by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City.
This work will be funded over the next 2 years using $600,000 provided by Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, BNY Mellon Foundation and the Hillman Foundation. This is part of a coordinated approach to financial inclusion involving over 20 partner organizations providing an array of services convened and led by Neighborhood Allies through the Asset Building Network.
To find out more about Neighborhood Allies: http://neighborhoodallies.com/
To find out more about Advantage Credit Counseling Service, Inc: https://www.advantageccs.org/pa-home