BROCKTON, Mass.-HarborOne CU's unique MultiCultural Banking Center will be recognized here this week when it receives the National Credit Union Foundation's Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Organization.
The center opened in September 2007, just before the national economy plunged into a recession. But Brockton was already suffering from employment and housing crises; the center was created to help individuals who are the most vulnerable during a downturn-immigrants and other minority groups. Along with providing free computer access, the center also boasts classrooms to host programs on housing assistance and financial education, as well as special products and services all delivered by a diverse staff that speaks English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Small loans to help immigrants pay for the cost of the U.S. Citizenship Test are also available.
"The Center has become a national model to deliver the critical human services needed for credit unions to reach new immigrants in order to build trusting financial relationships," NCUF Awards & Recognition Committee Chairman Bob Schumacher said in a statement.
HarborOne President/CEO Jim Blake said the Center was recognized because it presents "a different kind of model" to help the underbanked and minority communities.
Since late 2007, the center has brought in more than $2-million in deposits, saved tax filers more than $100,000 in fees, and secured more than $20-million in first mortgages. In just 13 months the Center reached self-sufficiency and turned a profit for the $1.8-billion credit union. Blake noted that those numbers only include situations where HOCU can "put names and faces to the paper" at the center, and does not include individuals who may have received assistance but waited until later to open up accounts at any of HarborOne's five Brockton locations.
Neighborhood Housing Services, a community partner with the MultiCultural Banking Center, has conducted more than 1,500 foreclosure mitigation sessions and has seen its success rate improve from less than 6% in 2007 to about 60% today. The soaring success rate can be credited to the partnership with the banking center, which earned Neighborhood Housing Services a $100,000 grant that allowed it to hire new people and conduct additional sessions "to sit down and have really meaningful examinations of the individuals' particular situations," Blake noted.
As the community demands change, the center is changing with it. In the past year the center added small business lending assistance programs and in late January it received an additional $100,000 from the Fireman Foundation to help expand its computer literacy programs.
"It will continue to evolve and fluctuate in terms of where we put our emphasis, based on what the community need is," Blake said.
