Whether you want to save for a new home, put a little more money away, or fix up your credit, the West Cook Homeownership Center’s Financial Empowerment Program can help.
Our Financial Empowerment program aims to improve our client’s financial lives by providing strategies focused on financial matters. We assist in budgeting and spending plans, fostering the use of formal banks and/or credit unions, helping plan for life after retirement, and preventing over-indebtedness. A part of this program is to provide money management and credit counseling. We can help you create a realistic budget and ways for you to stick with it. We also offer help to people with credit issues. We can help you clean up your credit and start rebuilding it. Tired of dealing with check cashers and title loan stores? We can help you with free checking accounts, savings accounts that will earn you interest, and credit building programs to help you improve your financial well-being. Getting your finances in order will help you prepare for homeownership or any other investment strategy you may want to undertake.
Financial Fundamentals Youth Program
We created Financial FUNdamentals to teach school-age youth important lessons about finances. The WCHC staff leads students in an interactive lesson to help them develop a savings-driven attitude. The program is an interactive dialogue with all students and is improv comedy based. Topics include understanding needs versus wants, “paying yourself first” by saving a portion of one’s allowance before spending it and opening a bank account. For high school students, the curriculum is based on post-high school financial decision making ranging from student loans to purchasing your first home.