Twin Accounts™ encourage saving by providing an incentive for families to make timely payments into a savings account. Every time a monthly payment of $25 is reported to the credit agencies, it is matched by Neighborhood Allies, providing a powerful incentive to save $300 in one year which, with the match, accumulates to $600 at the end of the year, positioning participants to build emergency savings or to invest.

Neighborhood Allies has made this incredible product available at each of our local Financial Opportunity Centers to low-wage workers working toward improving their individual and family wealth. We’re happy to report that after one year of saving, three Pittsburghers who are clients at Oakland Planning and Development Corp.’s (OPDC), JobLinks, have completed the program. But the $300 match is just icing on the cake in terms of the positive impact these individuals have experienced. Read more about one JobLinks client that was able to go from no credit score, to a score of 718 in just 12 months!

The three area Financial Opportunity Centers celebrated National Financial Goal Day during the week of October 10, with games, prizes and incentives for families to save toward their goals.

National Financial Goal Day was established by The Financial Clinic (www.thefinancialclinic.org) which says that people who make and achieve a short-term financial goal are 4.5 times more likely to achieve a longer-term financial security outcome, such as getting out of debt or purchasing a home. Read more to see how Mon Valley Initiative, JobLinks and Northside Common Ministries celebrated Financial Goal Day. 

Blight Bootcamp is a conference designed to engage and empower City of Pittsburgh residents to fight against blight in their communities. The Pittsburgh Blight Working Group hosted the 2nd Annual Blight Bootcamp this past October with the focus of ensuring that residents have the opportunity to learn how they can lead block-by-block efforts in their own neighborhoods in making positive change happen.

This year, we took to the streets and held Blight Bootcamp in Hazelwood, kicking off the conference with a volunteer work day in conjunction with Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh and Hazelwood Initiative. The second day included a panel of blight remediation practitioners ranging from local community advocates, government officials, to nonprofit professionals, a keynote address from a regional expert and nine sessions on an array of subjects relating to blight elimination. 

Did you miss Blight Bootcamp 2016? Videos of the second day's speakers and sessions can be viewed on the City's youtube channel!

A recent $100,000 grant from the BNY Mellon Foundation of SWPA is supporting our local Pittsburgh network of Financial Opportunity Centers (FOC) , which help low and moderate income families build assets and attain financial stability and upward mobility. BNY Mellon’s support will be used for ongoing FOC program support for three FOCs throughout 2017. Thank you, BNY Mellon, for your generous investment! Read more about our goals and anticipated outcomes for local FOCs in 2017!