Louisville, Ky., – Louisville’s third Financial Empowerment Summit will bring together local and national speakers, community leaders, service providers, nonprofits and financial institutions eager to help individuals and families improve their financial well-being.
The Summit — presented by Metro United Way, Louisville Metro Community Services and Bellarmine University — will take place on Wed. March 2, from 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road in the Amelia Brown Frazier Hall. More than 100 attendees are anticipated. They will participate in activities and workshops geared to build on their personal finances so they can better understand and secure their own financial success, and better assist with the financial success of their clients.
The goal of financial empowerment is to help people make informed financial choices and encouraging them to work toward their financial goals. This includes expanding financial literacy and education opportunities so people learn how to reduce debt and manage their budgets, build credit, and plan and save for long-term goals.
Joe Tolan, President and CEO of Metro United Way, stated, “We all win when a child succeeds in school, when a neighborhood turns around, when families have good health and when workers have solid jobs. The summit helps equip participants with the tools and skills to build personal financial empowerment as well as enriching the capacity of our community’s organizations to better serve the needs of families, helping improve lives and the long-term success of our community.”
Keynote speakers at the Summit include:
- Lindsay Ferguson, America Saves local campaign outreach coordinator with Consumer Federation of America,will offer an overview of savings in America, the importance of savings as a means of building wealth and an introduction to how the America Saves Campaign can encourage you to make saving automatic.
- Jade Shipman, director of research & innovation with EARN, will discuss how a lack of savings impacts working families and the benefits families can harness through saving in small amounts.
- Desmond Brown, deputy assistant director, Office for Financial Empowerment with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), will provide an overview of the CFPB’s work to empower low-income and economically vulnerable consumers to make informed financial decisions to meet their goals.
Mayor Greg Fischer will open the day sharing his support for Louisville’s community-wide financial empowerment efforts; and to encourage the strengthening of partnerships to meet the needs of our residents.
“expanding financial empowerment opportunities for our citizens is more than a good economic development strategy. It is another step towards making Louisville a more compassionate city,” Fischer said. “Strong families are the bedrock of a strong community, and financial stability is a key component for any individual or family to have a solid foundation.”
A variety of workshops will be offered at the event including, “A Deeper Dive with EARN;” “How to Protect Yourself against Fraud;” “The Stock Market Game;” and “The Flip Side of Change: Understanding the Impact when People Make Change.” The day will end with a fun and interactive Financial Empowerment Tournament which allows attendees to test their knowledge in a series of financial games including a financial empowerment cupcake walk, financial football and jeopardy.
Also highlighted at the summit are lessons learned from the nearly 100 individuals representing 36 organizations who took part in the 2015 Personal Finance Empowerment Series (PFES). The series aimed to provide social service frontline staff with personal finance workshops to enable them to become more secure in their own financial situation. A new 2016 PFES Series will be launched in April.
The PFES series was made possible by a grant from the FINRA Investor Education foundation through a partnership with United Way Worldwide. Local partners include Louisville Metro Community Services and Metro United Way, with support from Apprisen, Louisville Urban League, Bellarmine University, Quantum Communications, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and Fulton180 Coaching, Consulting and Training Projects.
For more information about the Summit including registration information, visithttp://www.cnpe.org/learnings/a051A00000EkZTBQA3 or call Breanne Nugent with Community Services at 502-574-6734. For more information about the 2016 Personal Finance Empowerment Series, visit www.louisvilleky.gov/PFES.
About Metro United Way
Metro United Way advances the common good in our community by creating opportunities for a better life for all. For nearly 100 years, Metro United Way has focused on solving community problems and that will never change. Today we work strategically with more partners to bering more people together to focus more deeply on the root causes of social problems. Our vision is a community whose people achieve their fullest potential through education, financial stability and healthy lives, the building blocks for a good quality of life. Metro United Way recognizes that it takes the whole community working together to reach our mutual goals and we recruit the people and organizations from across the community who bring the passion, expertise and resources needed to accomplish our goals. For more information, please visit MetroUnitedWay.org or call 502-583-2821. We invite you to be a part of the change. You can give, you can advocate and you can volunteer. Great things happen when we LIVE UNITED.
About Louisville Metro Community Services
Louisville Metro Community Services is a community leader in the financial empowerment movement which includes launching Bank On Louisville in 2010 and creating a Financial Empowerment/Economic Development Team in 2013 within the Advocacy & Empowerment division. The Mission of the Department of Community Services is to improve the quality of life for all residents and reduce poverty. More information is available at http://www.louisvilleky.gov/government/community-services
About the FINRA Investor Education Foundation
The FINRA Investor Education Foundation supports innovative research and educational projects that give underserved Americans the knowledge, skills and tools necessary for financial success throughout life. For details about grant programs and other FINRA Foundation initiatives, visit www.finrafoundation.org.
