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Financial Literacy
Workshops and Counseling
Financial literacy
workshops are offered to educate individuals possessing
limited knowledge of and experience with the mainstream
financial tools and resources that promote economic
prosperity. The curriculum is based on a
combination of existing curricula including the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) “Money Smart”
curriculum and Citibank’s and the National Community
Reinvestment Coalition’s (NCRC) financial literacy
curricula. ELACC’s financial literacy counselors have
received training from the FDIC and NCRC. A vast array
of workshops is offered throughout the year to address
the most pressing financial needs of the
community.
• An
introduction to banking products and
services
• Benefits of a checking
account
• Borrowing basics: an introduction to
credit
• Budgeting: how to keep track of your
money
• Credit issues and
solutions
• Establishing a savings
plan
• Understanding consumer installment
loans
• Using credit cards wisely
• Your rights as a
consumer
Workshops are provided in-house
and at the sites of our community partners, such as the
Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA),
Southern California Edison Credit Union (SCECU), the
Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative (BHLC), and the
Lucille Beserra Roybal Youth and Family Center. In
addition, workshops have also been offered in local
schools, community centers, churches, and other
non-profits.
First-Time Homebuyer
Workshops
The purpose of
these workshops is to assist first-time homebuyers
through the complex and often overwhelming process of
purchasing and financing a home. A workshop
provides 8 hours of education on a variety of topics
essential to home purchasing and that will serve to
empower a homebuyer to make well informed purchase
decisions and avoid predatory schemes. The
following topics are covered at each
workshop:
• Homebuyer
vocabulary
• Saving and budgeting
• Building good credit and repairing bad
credit
• Establishing non-traditional
credit
• Responsibilities of a real estate agent
• Shopping for a house
• Choosing a mortgage
lender
• Applying for a mortgage
loan
• Government assistance programs for
first-time homebuyers
• Escrow and the closing
process
• Consumer rights & consumer
protection laws
• Fair housing laws
• Maintaining your home and
managing your finances
Our counselors are certified by
HUD and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and
have extensive experience in workshop facilitation. Our
first-time homebuyer workshop is approved by the City
and County of Los Angeles and fulfills the 8-hour
homebuyer education requirement for their respective
soft second loan and down payment assistance
programs.
Post-Purchase
Education Workshops
ELACC’s
post-purchase workshops provide education on key topics
that will help both new and existing homeowners manage
the day-to-day responsibilities of owning, financing and
maintaining a home. They offer practical guidance and
hands-on assistance to ensure that clients’ financial
investments are protected and preserved. HUD has
certified the workshop facilitator and the Neighborhood
Reinvestment Corporation to teach post-purchase
education workshops and provide one-on-one counseling
services. Workshop topics include:
• Budgeting
• Property Taxes, Assessments, and Deductions
• Insurance
• Understanding Mortgage
Loans
• Understanding Home
Equity
• Record Keeping
• Identifying
and Preventing Predatory Lending
• Foreclosure
Prevention
• Basic Home
Maintenance
• Financing for Home
Improvements & Repairs
Currently the
Homeownership department has focused on developing a
standardized curriculum of classes to offer as informed
by client service surveys. Linguistically
appropriate materials are being translated into Spanish
in order to fully implement this newer service component
into the full spectrum of programming offered through
the Homeownership
Department.
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