Financial Literacy Month Spotlight: Brighton Park Neighborhood Council

April is Financial Literacy Month, which raises awareness on the importance of financial education and smart money-making decisions. Over the next few weeks, we will highlight some of our incredible grant recipients that are empowering communities of color with tools for financial empowerment and wealth-building.

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) is a community-based organization with a mission to improve the quality of life for the working-class and immigrant populations on Chicago’s Southwest Side through grassroots organizing and free social services to residents of all ages. A grant recipient under the Income Growth Solutions portfolio, BPNC provides financial literacy programs to residents with various financial needs, including foreclosure prevention and homebuyer counseling.

In an interview with Trust Content Specialist Liz Weber, Sara Reschly, deputy director of Community Services, and Jasmine Gonzalez, a housing counselor, discuss the organization’s work, misconceptions about financial literacy, and the role of financial literacy in bringing economic stability to the people they serve.

Can you talk more about the type of financial literacy program Brighton Park Neighborhood Council provides?

Jasmine Gonzalez: Our housing counselors provide financial literacy through one-on-one counseling with residents seeking services for purchasing a home, credit improvement, and budgeting skills. We also work with homeowners experiencing financial hardship and can no longer keep up with their mortgage payments. The neat feature is that we are a full circle counseling service, understanding that each individual needs some guidance on how to make smart decisions with money.  Some might need the very basics, such as understanding budgeting, while others may need more in-depth analysis tailored to their situation.  We also do workshops in the neighborhood, with topics ranging from credit basics to rights and responsibilities for tenants. And that’s all part of our financial literacy education. 

In addition, we have case managers based at all elementary schools in Brighton Park who work with families facing eviction and possibly homelessness. Part of that work is talking with clients about ways to increase their income and making them aware of various programs that could help them in difficult financial situations. For example, if they have a medical emergency and are facing large medical bills.

Who do your programs serve? And why is it important to provide these individuals and families with financial literacy programs?

Sara Reschly: We are a community-based organization that mainly serves Brighton Park and surrounding neighborhoods. People seeking our services are primarily immigrants and people from working-class and lower-income households. Within the last year or two, we have seen a large increase in people coming to Chicago who are seeking asylum. We call them our new neighbors, both at the Gage Park Shelter and the people who have settled in Brighton Park, Gage Park, and Back of the Yards. And they’re struggling financially, and so they come to us.  

JG: I would add that we gather information to help us understand how individuals learn about us. We have found that the majority share it’s from internal referrals from other programs, community schools, and other nonprofits.  We also partner with the State Housing Authority and serve individuals from various zip codes in Illinois who need services we provide that other agencies may not offer. Our financial literacy services are tailored to specific needs based on counseling, which aligns with the clients’ values to establish financial goals. This allows them to make choices voluntarily, which in turn helps them achieve goals, improves accountability, and makes financial literacy more relatable.

Can you share some misconceptions you’ve come across that people have had about financial literacy?

SR: We are very thoughtful about how we talk about and promote our workshops because if we call them financial literacy, people won’t come. Instead, we use relatable terms such as how to help your family reach financial goals. And with people staying at the shelter, we tell them we will have a workshop to help them find an apartment that will work for them. How you talk about it is important. 

JG: In the Latinx community, it’s very taboo to talk about finances and money, and we understand that, so we try to make it very hands-on and friendly. I also believe that when we say “financial literacy,” we think of budgeting, income and credit. It’s so much more than that, so we try to make sure we can break it down, not so black and white, and incorporate apps to match today’s modern era, tips and tricks in today’s economy, and other ways of seeing it in a more positive light.

At the Trust, our strategic priority is closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap. Can you talk a little bit more about how financial literacy can really help people start building wealth or achieve some type of financial stability in their lives?

SR: Obtaining financial stability is hugely important for a community – both at the neighborhood level and for the family. At BPNC, one of our goals is to ensure that we have a strong and thriving neighborhood and support families to achieve their financial goals. We do that by working with our local neighborhood schools. One thing we have seen is that when families are financially unstable, it impacts their children’s education and academic performance. Every time a child changes schools due to their family being evicted, that really impacts their ability to learn, and then you start to see the drop in the test scores.  

It’s also important when you talk to health experts. At BPNC, we collaborate with neighborhood health clinics because one of our goals is to ensure families have access to high-quality health care. And when we’re talking with these health providers, they talk about all the factors that can contribute to somebody having poor health – income instability is a big one.  

JG: We also aim to teach that generational wealth starts with buying a home. Statistics show that white households purchase their first homes between 30-35, versus Black and Brown families at 40-45. Therefore, the gap in age matters because the growing equity built in that household is less than the average white family. Our agency gives Black and Brown families the platform to start having those conversations with their children to set these goals. This helps families educate and empower their children so that these habits can be passed down to future generations. We also encourage the conversations to keep going with their children at home so they can start to understand the importance of finances and building wealth so that as their children get older, they are making their own stable financial choices.