An Economic Empowerment Department Update

WIBO Update

On September 8^th, our first Workshop in Business Opportunities class will graduate! We are thrilled! Our first seven participants have worked very hard these past 16 weeks to put together their business plans for ideas ranging from photography to virtual assistants to personal shoppers to fantasy artwork and more. During graduation, our seven participants will display their businesses and compete for a mini-grant of $1,500 to give them a jumpstart on their business. We’d like to thank our first set of participants and discussion leaders for their hard work and dedication to WIBO. We’d also like to thank the Hillman Foundation for their generous support. We couldn’t do it without you!

If you are interested in taking our Workshop in Business Opportunities class, please contact Brittany Linville (412)820-2050 ext. 419 or linvilleb@fswp.org.

Moneythink Update

Lindsey Blocki and Brittany Linville recently attended the Moneythink Summer Institute in Chicago, Illinois with Carol Goldburg, faculty advisor for our first Moneythink chapter at Carnegie Mellon. While there, Lindsey, Brittany and Carol met with Moneythink leaders from around the country to learn the curriculum, mission and purpose of Moneythink. Moneythink uses college students as mentors to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship in high school classrooms. We are excited to jump start Moneythink in September with Carnegie Mellon and local high schools. 

If you are a college student interested in being a Moneythink mentor or someone interested in bringing Moneythink to your local high school, please contact Brittany Linville (412)820-2050 ext. 419 or linvilleb@fswp.org.

Financial Wellness Classes Update

Lindsey Blocki and Derron Moose, our financial wellness trainers, have been hard at work teaching our Financial Wellness classes all over Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties! To date, we’ve seen over 250 people in our classrooms. This class is based on the Money Smart curriculum from the FDIC. Money Smart is an 11 week class that covers a variety of topics ranging from banking to credit repair to budgeting. 

If you’re interested in taking a financial wellness class, please call us at (412) 820-2050 ext. 419.