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Partnership created to help with finances
Mahoning County has a lot of people working, but not making enough to make ends meet.
YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning Valley residents have a new resource for learning how to manage their financial resources during these tough economic times.
The Mahoning County Financial Stability Partnership, spearheaded by the Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way and the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, was launched Wednesday.
“There are a lot of working poor who are less than a paycheck away from catastrophe. The purpose of the Financial Stability Partnership is to help people on all levels to stabilize financially,” said Sarah V. Lown, development incentive manager for the Youngstown City Office of Economic Development.
Lown chaired United Way’s Achieving Our Potential Vision Council, which saw that the county has a large population of people who are working but don’t make enough money to get by. Out of that came the idea for the financial stability partnership, said Ginny Pasha, Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way director of community investment.
All of the 23 financial stability partnership members are focused on helping working families manage their resources, Pasha said.
The library provides information access to a large and diverse audience in the community, and partnership with other organizations is a good way to combat problems and help the community have a brighter future, said Carlton A. Sears, library director.
For example, the library recently received a Smart Investing@Your Library grant of $57,950 for a financial literacy program called “Baby Brilliant Goes to College,” which focuses on helping parents save and invest in their children’s education.
The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County was one of 13 public libraries nationwide, and the only one in Ohio, to receive a Smart Investing grant, which is a partnership between the American Library Association and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation.
“We are hoping to help people learn about ways to save, even if just a little, for their children’s futures,” Sears said.
Community issues stemming from personal, economic and environmental factors are growing increasingly complex and more difficult. More and more, hard-working individuals and families are unable to get ahead financially, Pasha said.
The Mahoning County Financial Stability Partnership’s four key areas of focus, aimed at helping families increase their income, build savings and gain and sustain assets, are: increase financial literacy; increase awareness of the opportunities to gain income; increase awareness of the importance of saving income; and impact public policy.
Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray, guest speaker at the financial stability partnership’s rollout at the Youngstown Country Club, said the partnership marries two of his favorite things: public libraries and personal financial education.
Libraries and United Way have been supportive of the financial security of citizens. And here, they have found a way to “make a difference and raise people up” by promoting education about the earned income tax credit, Cordray said.
He said he will “look for ways to work” with the county effort, and noted that his office has a financial resource Web site, www.yourmoneynowonline.org., to which people can turn for help.
Pasha said free tax preparation offered to low-income residents by the Mahoning Valley Economic Coalition, aimed at making sure they get the earned income and child tax credits to which they are entitled, has made a significant impact on the community.
She said the program resulted in some $2.1 million in earned income and child tax credits, and savings on tax preparation fees were returned to the local economy in 2007.
James Callen, executive director of Northeast Ohio Legal Services, praised the United Way for taking the initiative to bring together the partnership, which he believes will better enable organizations to make an impact on the community.
“The problems the community faces are beyond any one organization’s ability to address,” Callen said.
alcorn@vindy.com