SOUTH BEND — The city of South Bend will pilot a financial counseling program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Center that will be the first of its kind in Indiana, leaders say.
The Financial Empowerment Center will offer one-on-one sessions to South Bend residents on basic financial planning principles, such as how to boost a credit score, pay off debt and build savings. Participants won’t have to pay for this counseling.
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More than 30 such centers exist in U.S. cities through a partnership with the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, a project of Bloomberg Philanthropies. To fund the program’s first two years, the organization will grant the city $150,000 while the South Bend Redevelopment Commission voted Thursday to allot $350,000 to the initiative.
The South Bend program will be the first such center in Indiana, according to Marty Kennedy, an enFocus fellow working with the city to implement the program. The city investment will fund a full-time manager and two full-time financial counselors for two years.
The city will select a nonprofit partner to manage the day-to-day operations of the center, but a South Bend employee will be tasked with its oversight, according to Caleb Bauer, executive director of the Department of Community Investment.
“The goal is that these first two years can prove out the concept here in South Bend and that we can take that to other philanthropic partners” to continue the program, Bauer said.
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Data collected by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund shows success in the four main subject areas: growing savings, reducing debt, boosting credit scores and managing bank accounts.
For residents who sought to stow away money, the program led to an average increase in savings of $3,770. Sessions focused on paying off debt led to an average reduction of $5,350. Credit scores increased by 38 points across participants. People closed an average of 1.3 delinquent bank accounts.
The program will be run out of the Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Center when the building opens in early 2025. Other temporary drop-in clinics could be scattered throughout the city, Bauer said.
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09
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