Louisville’s Fourth Financial Empowerment Summit

Louisville’s fourth Financial Empowerment Summit will bring together local and national speakers, community leaders, service providers, and nonprofits and financial institutions eager to help individuals and families improve their financial well-being.

The Summit — presented by Metro United Way and Louisville Metro Community Services — will take place on Thurs. March 9, from 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road in the Amelia Brown Frazier Hall. More than 100 attendees are anticipated. They will participate in activities and workshops geared to build on their personal finances so they can better understand and secure their own financial success, and better assist with the financial success of their clients.

Registration can be made through March 3 on-line at http://www.cnpe.org/learnings/a051A00000FcS3kQAF.  The $25 registration fee includes a continental breakfast, buffet lunch, all workshops, door prizes and giveaways.

The goal of financial empowerment is to help people make informed financial choices and to make progress toward their financial goals.  This includes expanding financial literacy and education opportunities so people learn how to reduce debt and manage their budgets, build credit, and plan and save for long-term goals.

Theresa Reno-Weber, President and CEO of Metro United Way, and Eric Friedlander, director of Louisville Metro Community Services will jointly open the day sharing their support for Louisville’s community-wide financial empowerment efforts; and to encourage the strengthening of partnerships to meet the needs of our residents.

“Financial Empowerment is a key part of the work we do in Community Services”, stated Friedlander.  “Our staff members continually seek new and innovative ways to help the clients we serve find the long-term path to economic stability.  I look forward to the Summit to continue our community’s work together to build strategies that break the cycle of poverty.”

Keynote speakers at the Summit include:

• Kathleen Cooter, Bellarmine University Professor and former Executive Director for the Kentucky Council for Economic Education, will provide an overview about the importance of education achievement in relation to achieving life’s financial outcomes.
• Carl Rist, Director for Children’s Savings and Senior Advisor of Asset Building for CFED will discuss the impact Children’s Savings Accounts have in propelling children, especially low income children, to pursue postsecondary education.
• Lamar Davis, Community Affairs Specialist for FDIC will provide an overview of the FDIC’s commitment to expanding access to safe, secure and affordable banking services to better serve the unbanked and underbanked consumers.
• Alianna Havrilla, Community Coach, County Health Rankings and Roadmaps will explore the intersection of financial stability and health efforts to create healthier communities.

A variety of workshops will be offered at the event including, “Workplace Financial Education”, “Children’s Savings Accounts – A more in-depth exploration from Promise Indiana” and “Money Smart Tools and Resources”.

Also highlighted at the summit are lessons learned from the nearly 114 individuals representing 48 organizations who took part in the 2016 Personal Finance Empowerment Series (PFES).  The series aimed to provide social service frontline staff with personal finance workshops to enable them to become more secure in their own financial situation.

The PFES series and the Financial Empowerment Summit are made possible by a grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation through a partnership with United Way Worldwide.  Local partners include Louisville Metro Community Services and Metro United Way, with support from Apprisen, Louisville Urban League, Bellarmine University, AARP, the Kentucky Council for Economic Education, Quantum Communications, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions and Fulton180 Coaching, Consulting and Training Projects.