NJ Awards $1.8M Through Financial Empowerment Pilot Program, 1st Bergen FCU Among Beneficiaries
The state of New Jersey recently announced the award of $1.8 million in funding to 10 nonprofit organizations through the Financial Empowerment Pilot Program.
Administered through the state’s Department of Community Affairs, the Financial Empowerment Pilot Program continues the administration’s dedication to the financial resiliency of New Jersey residents. Last spring, Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio and the Department of the Treasury launched NJ FinLit, a free online financial wellness platform, available to all adults across the state. Thousands of residents have taken advantage of the site’s highly personalized and interactive learning experience.
Awards were given to nonprofit organizations with demonstrable success using the field of financial empowerment services to mitigate the effects of structural poverty. The programs must focus on serving traditionally underserved cultural or linguistic communities and those communities historically disenfranchised from access to banking and wealth-building tools, including:
- Youth transitioning from foster care or the juvenile justice system
- Veterans
- Seniors, especially those raising their grandchildren
- People with behavioral health needs
- People with disabilities
- Re-Entry participants
- Survivors of domestic violence
Selected programs may be an expansion of existing, successful services or may be the creation of an adjacent service.
Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. (GBCA) was among the awardees. GBCA, the sponsor of Hackensack-based 1st Bergen FCU, is receiving $250,000 to provide financial literacy and banking services to low-income Bergen County, Paterson, and Jersey City residents.