L.I.F.T. R&R

The goal is to increase financial literacy through free educational tools and resources to Collin County residents living in poverty.
With 6.5% of Collin county residents living in poverty, this equates to over 71,000 individuals earning less than a livable wage.
The staggering effects of poverty on our community include hunger and malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, shelter, and educational opportunities. with basic needs and services.
Our financial literacy classes offer free services to assist residents with successfully entering the job force. This includes resumé building, interview preparation, money management training, debt and credit counseling. Our participants learn to make logical and prudent financial and employment decisions that lead them toward a better financial future.
Residents ages 14 and older are eligible to participate. When accepted into the LIFT Financial Literacy program, participants are also offered clothing, furniture, grocery vouchers, and gift cards, in addition to other community partners covering other needs such as healthcare, mentorship, infant to geriatric resources free of charge.

Financial literacy empowers participants with the knowledge and skill to manage money and make smart financial decisions. This program teaches participants how to understand credit, manage debt, savings, interest, payday loans and investing. We bring to light predatory lending practices to assist residents with financial acumen and making better informed financial decisions. Equipping our community with financial literacy is a critical component to financial independence and sustainability.

Our financial literacy education course will target 100 Collin county residents per year. Our goal is to help people understand how the mechanics of our money system works. This will include, but is not limited to topics like banking, credit cards, budgets, paychecks, interest, stocks and taxes.
Studies have found that poverty has a severe impact on our communities. Families in poverty are likely to complete 2 years fewer of educational training, males in poverty are five times more likely to be incarcerated. On average, families in poverty bore a larger financial burden on social services like food stamps and were 3 times more likely to report being in poor health.
We start by identifying unnecessary financial burdens such insufficient funds charges, check cashing fees, exuberant interest rates and offer alternatives to save money.
Within 6 months, our students are able to eliminate an average of $500 in discretionary expenses.
Our goal is to have 90% of all students have a checking and savings account with no service charges at a reputable financial institution upon completion of the program.
We will offer job and education development skills, consisting of mock interview and attire training, resumé building, assistance with job applications and educational applications and financial aid.

The financial budget for the literacy program is $3000.00 annually, which is received through our sponsorships and partners. These consist of Amazon Smiles, Board contributions, public speaking engagements, and donations.
Before starting the literacy program, a standard questionnaire will be provided to the participants to create a baseline. Participants will be provided the same questionnaire upon completion of the program to quantitatively determine the level of growth and retention of information.
A qualitative survey will be given to all participants upon completion of the program to determine their overall level of satisfaction. This will also be an opportunity for participants to provide recommendations on future topics which may not have been covered. Survey results will be anonymous unless the participant chooses to provide personal information.
LIFT will also do exit interviews for participants who begin but are unable to complete the training to determine what barriers were present and to implement services to overcome those barriers for future participants.
Stakeholders will receive the anonymous survey results and quarterly statistics.

We have worked collaboratively with other nonprofits and utilized Better Money Habits economic mobility curriculum created by Bank of America and Khan Academy and curriculum from 1st United bank to bring financial literacy courses to our community. The 1st United Bank vidoes are now housed on our website for self paced availability for all to come and learn. The goal is to work with social services and nonprofit agencies that can refer us individuals that meet the initial qualifications for screening and candidacy for classes to begin in winter 2022. Next is the crucial work of interviewing selected applicants for next steps.