The month of April is one of our favorites because it’s Financial Literacy Month! Last month, our staff and volunteers had their schedules jam packed bringing education and consumer awareness to the communities we serve.

One of our volunteers, Tonika Garibaldi, delivered training on Credit at the Money Matter’s Kick-off on April 1st.

Money Matters Month in Howard County, MD

We kicked off April by supporting Howard County, Maryland Government’s Money Matters Month. On April 1st, we provided in-person education on Credit at the kick-off event. Throughout the month, we also teamed up with Howard County, Maryland’s Office of Consumer Protection, and other local organizations to offer webinars on additional financial literacy topics. The webinars were recorded, and we invite you to view them anytime.

Credit 101

Identify Theft

Disaster Preparedness

Partner Specific Trainings

Throughout the month, we delivered presentations to our partners’ constituents at Our Mother’s House (Venice, Florida), Baltimore County Public Library and University of Maryland, Baltimore. Topics included budget, renting and homeownership. To learn more about ways to partner with CCCSMD for group education, email our Outreach Manager, Sandee Rains at srains@cccsmd.org.

Medical Debt Education

Our team delivered education to the staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital covering the financial toxicity surrounding medical debt, the implications of medical debt and how patients with significant debt can seek assistance from nonprofit credit counseling agencies.  We also talked about the Maryland laws surrounding medical debt and what practitioners need to know.  We are very grateful for this unique opportunity and hope to bring similar education to other medical facilities in the future!

First Time Homebuyer Education

April saw one of our highest turnouts for the First Time Homebuyer Workshop! Offered monthly, our 8-hour workshops cover all the things prospective homebuyers need to know before making their first home purchase. We talk about budgeting for homeownership, credit implications, the role of the realtor, lender and other players buyers will encounter along their journey. You can register for our next homebuyer workshop today!

Pictured from left to right: Tony Korol-Evans, Training & Special Projects Administrator, MNADV; Tova Zimm, Victim Advocacy Director, JCADA; Emily Hickox, VP of Marketing and Community Outreach, CCCSMD.

Economic Justice Summit

Towards the end of April, we attended the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) Economic Justice Summit in Washington, DC.  We learned so much from our friends at domestic violence service providers and coalitions from across the country! We also had the privilege of presenting at one of the breakout sessions with our partners at the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence (MNADV) and the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse (JCADA) on how we have built our partnership and improved our organization’s ability to serve victims of intimate partner violence.

Group Education in Lackawanna County, PA

During April, we kicked off our first collaboration in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania where we have recently started expanding our operations.  Throughout the month, we gave three presentations for Dress for Success Lackawanna’s financial literacy program. Topics ranged from an understanding of personal finance to building credit and wealth.  We really enjoyed this opportunity and look forward to working on this program again in the future!

On-Demand Education!

We are super excited to announce that we now have some of our most requested workshops recorded and available on-demand on our website! Visit Personal Finance Workshops – CCCSMD to view workshops on budget, credit and homeownership and stay tuned for more content to be loaded in the coming months!

April was certainly a busy month, and we are happy to report that things are not slowing down! Amongst all the group education and financial literacy month programs, we have also continued to fine tune our online counseling and student debt solutions.  We are continuing to build up our video content on our YouTube channel and have exciting things happening in our partnerships. Visit us often or follow us on social media to keep up with what’s happening at CCCSMD!