AmeriCorps VISTA Presence with the IDA and Asset Building Collaborative of N.C.: Marley's service with Community Link in Charlotte

Marley serves as a VISTA at Community Link in Charlotte.  She is incredibly energetic and outgoing, and holds a lust for service; she actively pursues every avenue for growth.  We were in the same training group during our VISTA orientation in Atlanta, and although our service sites are far apart, I was so happy to learn that we would serve on the same team.  –Andriana Bicanin.

Marley comes into the program with experience as an AmeriCorps State/National member.  With that she worked in the family services department with home buyers.  The biggest differentiating factor with her State/National position and her VISTA position is that the director of the State/National program chose who was in line for their house to be built, down payments, everything.  They didn’t have to wait on word from other organizations.  With her past service term the direction of the project came from the inside, and management decided the direction of projects and initiatives.

She chose to join AmeriCorps because of the mission of AmeriCorps- that of ending the vicious cycle of poverty.  While volunteering with Habitat for Humanity her eyes were opened to the value of educating people on the lower economic scale.  She discovered the importance of educating those with lower income on credit and housing, and then giving them something tangible that they can build off of.  As with everyone in IDA and asset building programs, she saw that education and tangible results are the sustainable long term solution to eliminating poverty.  She said that even if they don’t stay in their house for five years, they know the process, the details, the true cost of things, and are more equipped to go on to bigger and better things, and actually climb the economic ladder. They now have the ability to pass their new found knowledge to the next generation. This is the path for long term solutions.  As she so accurately states, life happens- homelessness and/or joblessness happens, but as long as you know the process to climb out of that it is possible to surpass the obstacles.

Community Link:

Community Link has several different programs that serve on a continuum for members of the community.  They include:

1) Family Jumpstart:  This program targets homeless people and pulls together casework, job assistance, and housing.

2) Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing:  Casework services and intervention for people who are on the verge of homelessness.

3) Supportive Housing: Community link has partnership agreements with housing complexes throughout Charlotte.  With this program, Community Link vouches for a person to live in an apartment complex, and assures that the complex will get rent in time, and the house will be left in good condition. 

These clients have past rental issues but are reformed and looking to improve their housing history.

4) Home Ownership Education and Counseling:  This program can last up to 18 months.  Some people come in because they want to take part in the House Charlotte program. 

In the House Charlotte program up to $10,000, for homes $140,000 and less, in closing costs and down payments are given depending on the neighborhood.  This program entails one-on-one going guidance through the entire home buying process.  In order to get into the program a client must me referred by the House Charlotte Line, a bank or a realtor.

5) Family Financial Literacy Coalition:  This is the program that Marley works on, and it is made up of three active committees.  It consists of partnerships with financial institutions and non profits in the city of Charlotte.  The main focus is on the VITA site.  There are financial education workshops by way of EITC. 

The VISTA position within this program:

Marley chairs the asset building committee.  Their main focus is asset building coaches who will be at the VITA site.  Exposure with the coaches is 15 minutes per client.  They try to load clients up with as much financial education as possible.  Clients have an opportunity to enroll in a prepaid debit card if they are under-banked or unbanked, and financial institution referrals are taken out of the resource guide. There are also referrals for foreclosure prevention, debt counseling, and employment assistance. 

They are currently in the pilot phase of a Financial Fitness Coach Program. This program is teamed up with their home ownership department.  If they have customers who will take longer than 18 months to complete the program, they are referred to the program and paired up with a financial fitness coach for a whole year.  The coach/customer team meets two hours a month so that the customer not only sets goals, but also meets with someone that guides them. The program focuses on paying off debt, staying on budget, improving credit, saving towards their kid’s college, or a down payment on something- car or house- whatever their goal might be. It’s a 12 month intensive program in the very beginning stages. This is the first program not centered on VITA sites that the coalition is doing.

There are great things going on in Charlotte, and Marley finds herself pushing her limits and facing challenges that arise.  She is unaccustomed to working as a collaborative, and is learning the ins and outs of collaborative interaction in the quest to move forward with a project.  This project is expansive, helps the many, and is far more than just a Charlotte wide initiative; it reaches beyond that area. When working they consider that everything they put together has to work in other counties and communities, and are broad in their approach.  She is still learning the mechanics of how it works.

Through these challenges she is learning and growing, and has set short term goals of improving the asset building coaches, and creating resources to pass onto customers.  Marley thinks for what is sustainable.  Handouts are temporary, but if they can give the person the tools they need in the long run they will be much better off. The major thing Marley is learning is that sometimes you will get that idea you want to take off with and are enthusiastic about, and some people will run with you, but especially in a collaborative, there is a lot of patience with processes because there are so many people that need to get on board; there is a much larger scope.  She is learning to walk that balance between patience and immediate action.