Our Legacy is distributed every month so that you can learn about the Village and the work we do in the community. As we begin 2010, we are renewing our 200 year-old commitment to ensure positive outcomes for all children. One way we achieve this is by providing the tools families need so they can maximize their ability to become self-sufficient.  We help these families manage the effects of a recession and become financially stable by providing financial education and coaching in order to reduce child poverty and create stable families. Especially when people find themselves in a situation where they must visit our Food Pantry, we open the door for them into our Family Financial Literacy program.

    “Income helps you get by: Assets move you ahead.”

Making ends meet can be a struggle for some families regardless of the state of the general economy. To make matters more complicated, the recent economic recession has hit Connecticut families hard and the percentage of people in poverty in Connecticut has increased by the largest margin of any state in the country. Now, more of Hartford’s children live below the poverty line than ever before.

Here at the Village, we have been working to minimize the impact of poverty on children and families in Greater Hartford. In particular, our Financial Literacy Coach has been working toward creating a behavioral change in our clients by helping them understand financial facts, principles, and using the right tools to make good financial decisions.

To help us understand why financial literacy is so important in our community, we asked some questions about how the Village is helping families to build and plan for their own economic security.

Just to give some background on our Financial Literacy program, it is primarily based on four pillars. The first of those is Asset building and our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) free tax preparation. The second is the Individual Development Account (IDA), followed by Financial Education (workshops and financial coaching) with the fourth pillar being Outreach and Advocacy.

To help people build assets, VITA is strongly aligned with our earned income tax program and our goal is to help low-income individuals and families who qualify claim that credit. Around 6 million dollars are left annually on the table in Greater Hartford unclaimed. That is where our campaign slogan ‘Claim It, Save It, Grow It’ comes from, and when we say our it is because the Village is a member of the Hartford Asset Building Collaborative. Each year there is a big campaign made up of many local collaborating agencies where we help people do their taxes, we recruit volunteers together, we train together, and we get the word out about our VITA centers and the earned income tax credit. About 40% of the people that the Village serves as a part of this collaboration had received their earned income tax credit which is pretty good. But what really makes the program work are the volunteers, and all the credit goes to them.  All of our services are free and it allow us to reach new clients in the community. If an individual is going to get back $1,500, we ask them what they are going to do with the money.   

One issue we have to contend with is that the people want their refund right away, so they go to a paid preparer. What happens when they go to a paid preparer is that they get their money faster, but they are paying fees – in a study done by the Brookings Institute their research showed how these paid preparers target certain populations. For example, you can find six H&R Block stores within a five mile radius in some urban poor neighborhoods. 

The Village is an alternative to these paid preparers, and we have a relationship with a credit union. We try to get clients to open up a savings account right on the spot. This year we are hoping to offer debit cards; the reason for this is that when people get a paper check, it takes a few weeks to clear or they go straight to the check cashing place which means more fees taken from their refund. However, with direct deposit into a savings account they can receive their refund in a couple of days and we are trying to encourage people to get into mainstream banking as an alternative to paid preparers and check cashing places. For those who have a history of fraud and are prohibited from a checking or debit account, we help people to fix that. Usually at this point we make these individuals aware of some of the services the Village offers and we connect them to programs that can help them start building assets.

A key program we try to get them involved with is the IDA (Individual Development Account) program. This is a savings match program, so with every dollar saved they get two dollars in matching dollars. They can save up to $2,000 and get a matching $4,000. So when an individual completes the program, they have $6,000 to go towards the purchase of their asset whether it is a house, a first-time business, or to pay for higher education beyond high school.

The IDA and the EITC our two most effective programs in helping people rise above the poverty level. These are two quality programs where the Village is having success, so we are really making a difference because we had and seen results; we have graduates who have bought homes, started business, etc.

Financial education is very basic information which typically arises when we do outreach. Mostly at our Family Resource Centers, we will speak to people in our in-house programs to let them know about when we will roll out our Financial Education programs which usually coincide with the beginning of each school year. One curriculum offered is called Money in Motion, which covers a variety of topics including budgeting, understanding credit, understanding contracts and so on. Sometimes, a group will ask for a specific program that will for example concentrate on taxes, then we will do one just on taxes. We even provide financial workshops for Hartford’s teenagers.

     For women in Hartford, we do a Building Wealth Workshop between September and October every year since there is a money conference for women each November. Typically that conference will have focused talks more related to investing rather than savings, so we help women make sure that they are ready to participate in the conference and with a working vocabulary.

Financial coaching is part of the IDA program, and it is something the Village is evolving toward with greater inertia. Coaching is primarily counseling that can last for up to five years which is pretty intense for a program. Here is where we give advice and provide some direction to the client to help them reach their financial goals. We outline the steps they should take or giving them the education they need in order to make wise money decisions. We put them on a path, and they are responsible to themselves – of course we follow up for outcomes, because we must make this as fruitful as possible.

In the future, we believe there is going to be even more demand for financial services. The financial industry is very dynamic and complex. Many people are not engaged due to the legal language, and all the things people have to navigate to understand financial services and products. Rules are constantly changing, and many people are just not able to keep up. There is definitely a need to help people understand finances, especially in Hartford where the reading proficiency level and high school graduation rate is so low. These individuals fall into a cycle of money mistakes and are often times stripped of their wealth. But the Village is helping people, and we are getting outcomes and having a very big impact.

All of these programs fall under Family Economic Security. Our goal is to get clients to advocate for themselves, and to provide opportunities for them. Money is in all facets of their lives, and if they have better control of their money the other areas of their life will improve.

The Village's Family Economic Security Program works with low-income families, many of whom have significant debt or other financial challenges, to increase their personal assets, reduce debt, and improve financial health. Program services currently include free tax preparation through a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program that emphasizes securing such benefits as the Earned Income Tax Credit.

If there is someone with an interest in becoming a volunteer to provide free taxpayer assistance to individuals with low and limited income, non-English speaking and elderly taxpayers in Hartford, the primary requirement for becoming a volunteer is a desire to give of your time to help others. To get involved, the Department of Revenue Services is a proud participant in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs. Click here for more information.

Volunteers that are interested in the TCE program can obtain additional information by registering online or by calling 1-888-AARPNOW (1-888-227-7669).

                                                         January is National Mentoring Month

National mentoring month is the time each year when our nation spotlights the importance of mentors and the need for every child to have a caring adult in his or her life. When you serve as a mentor, you enrich your own life as much as you do the life of a child or adult. Here at the Village, several mentoring programs are in operation year-round. One, for example, is our Fatherhood Initiative program which works with young inner-city fathers—they are matched with male mentors who serve as guides and role models focused on helping to build parenting skills and improving education and employment opportunities. Click here to view the program brochure.

If you want more information about how you can become a mentor for a child in a program at the Village, please call 860.236.4511.

Created by the Harvard School of Public Health and MENTOR, National Mentoring Month (NMM) is marking its ninth year in 2010. By focusing national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us—individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities and nonprofits—can work together to increase the number of mentors, we assure brighter futures for our young people. For more information, please visit:   The National Mentoring Month Web Site

The Village Food Pantry: An Important Community Asset

Making ends meet is a struggle and can leave families insecure about having enough food to get them through the month. Some may have to scrimp on the quantity or quality of the food that they eat. While these situations happen in the best of times, they become more common and acute in economic recessions when job markets are weak and State and local government assistance is curtailed by tight budgets. In Hartford, an already economically challenged community, the number of families that are financially strained has grown. For many, the Village’s services, including its Food Pantry, are a critical resource.

Connecticut’s poverty rate took a sharp turn for the worse in 2008. The poverty rate, especially for children, increased faster in Connecticut than in any other state in 2008 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In places like our Village Food Pantry, we are seeing the effects of the recession on Hartford’s urban poor and there has been a dramatic increase in asks for basic needs items such as food. We anticipate this need to increase in 2010 since many state budget cuts will worsen the impact of poverty on families. In Hartford, too many families now live below the poverty line.

Our Village Food Pantry has been running for five years. Almost every other day, an individual who is struggling and is at risk of hunger walks through the doors at Village South in need of assistance. Recently, a man explained that he and his wife had just lost their jobs. After paying the bills to keep the heat and electricity on, there simply was no money for food to feed themselves and their four year old boy. They found themselves suddenly in need because of unexpected expenses that included medical bills for their child who was recently sick and for auto repairs which had to be made for the father to continue looking for work. Once they came to the Village Food Pantry, our staff was able to immediately supply them with food and to set up a schedule with the father to provide him with free budget coaching. One of our staff members soon became a financial counselor to the father, providing him with customized case management and referring him to a job training course. The mother was also able to take advantage of career development services at the Village, and their child was provided with School Readiness services at the agency’s Rambuh Family Center.

Helping families move toward long-term food security is the overall arching goal of our Village Food Pantry program. Our integrated approach to services and the Village mission drives us toward a goal of helping families become more self-sufficient and the effort is having a direct impact on the community. Many of the clients served at the Village Food Pantry are involved in other Village programs. Village Food Pantry clients, whether existing or new, are made aware of  the other programs we offer such as free tax preparation, after-school Family Resource Centers, teen pregnancy program, GED services, and Fatherhood program among others.

 Our Village Food Pantry is located at:

331 Wethersfield Avenue

Hartford, CT 06114

Telephone: (860) 236-4511