Financial Empowerment Program

Our Financial Empowerment Program supports innovative, culturally relevant projects that improve financial security for low-income AAs and NHPIs and broaden opportunities for building wealth.

The Financial Empowerment Program supports innovative, culturally relevant projects that improve financial security for low-income AAs and NHPIs and broaden opportunities for building wealth.

National CAPACD invests in growing the capacity of AA and NHPI-serving community-based organizations to implement culturally and linguistically relevant education and services with the goal of helping immigrants and native populations better understand, manage, and grow their household wealth.

We have worked with our members on a number of initiatives that have led to a unique program scaled and tailored to the diversity of AA and NHPI communities across the country. In 2014, we piloted a program with four community-based organizations in Texas, New York, California, and Illinois, to integrate financial capability activities with their existing immigrant integration program services. These activities included financial coaching, financial education, and access to financial products such as Lending Circles. (See white paper on the results of the pilot.)

Using a peer training model (our ACTION TA program), National CAPACD provided culturally competent technical assistance and training on program development in order to integrate financial capability programming, provide financial coaching skill building, connect to appropriate financial products, and support program evaluation. We have since replicated the model at four additional sites in Ohio, Georgia, Minnesota, and Hawaii. These efforts have shown that integrated service delivery, such as including financial coaching as part of housing or small business counseling, is significantly more impactful and demonstrates better financial outcomes for low- to moderate-income clients than nonintegrated approaches.

To learn more about our work with member organizations on Lending Circles, watch the video below:

Immigrant Integration Video from National CAPACD on Vimeo.
Video by Chris Tsou

For more information about the Financial Empowerment Program, contact Director of Economic Empowerment Rosalyn Epstein at rosalyn@nationalcapacd.org.