HarborOne's MultiCultural Banking Center Wins Prestigious Wegner Award
BROCKTON, Mass. (September 15, 2009) – HarborOne Credit Union’s MultiCultural Banking Center has won the National Credit Union Foundation’s (NCUF) prestigious Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Organization.
HarborOne will be one of only four credit unions in the nation honored at the 22nd Annual Wegner Awards Dinner. The dinner, hosted by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), will be held at the 2010 Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington D.C. February 22.
Believed to be the only one of its kind in the country, HarborOne opened its MultiCultural Banking Center in September 2007 in its former headquarters in downtown Brockton. The Center was created to help low and moderate-income residents, minorities and immigrants avoid predatory financial practices through education.
“The Center has become a national model to deliver the critical human services needed for credit unions to reach new immigrants in order to build trusting financial relationships,” said NCUF Awards & Recognition Committee Chairman Bob Schumacher, CEO of MountainCrest Credit Union in Arlington, Wash.
To date, over 1500 students have taken classes at the center, including courses on the basics of personal finance, first-time home ownership, foreclosure prevention and English as a second language. Because many of the victims of predatory financial practices have a limited understanding of English, these courses are taught in Spanish, Portuguese and French in addition to English. (ESL is only taught in English). Three of the Multicultural Center’s four staff members are first-generation immigrants who speak multiple languages.
“We are very proud that the National Credit Union Foundation is looking at our Multicultural Banking Center as a model,” said HarborOne Credit Union President & CEO James Blake. “The Center works to create educated consumers who recognize the traps and gimmicks used by predatory lenders. This is the first step in ensuring that people never have to face the prospect of losing their homes.”
The center also offers innovative products and services to elevate the level of trust between the credit union and immigrant and minority communities. Since it opened, the center has opened more than $2 million in deposits, saved low-income tax filers over $100,000 in fees and secured over $20 million in first mortgages. New immigrants can also apply for a loan to take the US Citizenship test.
“We met with community groups and activists in our marketplace to understand why immigrants and other minorities succumb to unscrupulous lenders,” said Leo MacNeil, HarborOne’s Senior Vice President of Community Relations. “It ultimately turned out to be a matter of trust. We believe the accomplishments at our Multicultural Center epitomize the National Credit Union Foundation’s mission of ‘improving financial independence’ through self-help, cooperation, economic empowerment, and volunteerism.”
The MultiCultural Banking Center has won several awards, including the Dora Maxwell Award from the Massachusetts Credit Union League. Earlier this year, the Center received a $100,000 grant from the National Credit Union Foundation. The grant was the largest of the 14 awarded by the NCUF. The Center was recently featured in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s quarterly publication “Community & Banking.”
The Center has been cited for its innovative education, multi-lingual setting and its outreach to community organizations. Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Shore, Self Help, South Shore Housing, Signature Healthcare, The Brockton Area Workforce Investment Board and Training Resources of America all offer services through the Center.
In addition to foreclosure prevention and financial education, low-to-moderate income area residents have access to job placement, rental housing assistance, and credit coaching and tax preparation through partners at the Center.
“HarborOne Credit Union has empowered many non-profits by offering them free space at the Multicultural Center,” observed Barbora Hazukova, regional manager of Training Resources of America. “This has enabled them to collaborate on projects and increase their outreach effectiveness.”
Through community partnerships, the Center has been able to increase its positive impact in the community. Through Neighborhood Housing Services, 1,685 area households have been assisted through foreclosure counseling, homebuyer education and down payment and closing cost assistance. To date, 173 Brockton area households have avoided foreclosure thanks to the work of Neighborhood Housing and the Multicultural Banking Center. The Center has helped improve Brockton’s foreclosure mitigation success rate from less that 5 percent in 2007 to over 50 percent in 2009.
“Without the Multicultural Center, it is likely that the financial crisis would have been much more severe,” added Peter Milewski, manager of homeownership and business development for MassHousing. “And it is likely that the financial losses experienced by individuals and the community would have been far greater.”
The MultiCultural Center’s greatest accomplishment, has been its impact on individuals.
“I am a Cape Verdean living in America,” explains financial education student Maria Leite. “ Sometimes we receive wrong information from wrong people and make wrong decisions because of it. By taking a class at HarborOne’s MultiCultural Banking Center, I will make better financial choices and improve my life.”
About the Wegner Awards:
The awards are named in honor of the late Credit Union National Association CEO Herb Wegner, whose tireless dedication, innovative ideas and deeds truly revolutionized the ways that credit unions serve their communities. The awards that bear Wegner’s name recognize his spirit of “innovative, creative, risk-taking” leadership.
About the National Credit Union Foundation (www.ncuf.coop):
The National Credit Union Foundation is the US credit union movement’s primary national charitable program provider, grant-maker, and fundraiser. NCUF programs include REAL Solutions, Credit Union Development Education, and Social Impact Management. Grant programs include Biz Kid$, Innovation Grants, and CUAid.
NCUF is funded primarily by investments in the Community Investment Fund (CIF) and by Supporters led by the Credit Union National Association, CUNA Mutual Group, the Corporate Credit Union Network, Harland Clarke, WesCorp, CO-OP Financial Services, Card Services for Credit Unions, Fidelity National Information Services, and Visa. All NCUF donors provide support that empowers NCUF and state credit union foundations to make a real impact in the credit union community.
