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AEI Regional
Initiatives
Atlanta Region
FDIC Community
Affairs staff in the Atlanta Region are working in the Black Belt area of
Alabama with the two adjoining Gulf Coast hurricane-impacted counties of
Mobile and Baldwin. The effort joined with the Alabama Asset Building
Coalition (AABC) to form the base for the AEI coalition. The Black Belt AEI
rollout event was launched in April 2007 and now has over 50 members.
The multi-county
initiative utilizes regional team leaders – a financial institution and
a community foundation for the south Black Belt; an enterprise community
CDC in the west Black Belt and university in the east Black Belt. The
regions focus on VITA with direct deposit account openings, savings
initiatives, financial education and individual development accounts (IDAs).
In September, 2008 a
conference on access to capital for community development was held and the first
series of awards for economic inclusion for innovative products and services
were given to financial institutions that developed gateway products and unique
and sustainable service approaches to the unbanked and underbanked.
In 2009, the effort
recognized a high school in the west Black Belt for introducing personal finance
in the curriculum, particularly as there is no legal mandate in the state to
provide such education. The initiative held several combined financial
institutions and community roundtables in the west and east Black Belt around
the state, adding a portion for the US SBA to provide information on its various
programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Several of the
initial IDA participants in the west Black Belt successfully completed their
savings and closed on homes. The culminating conference of 2009 was a combined
one with the annual Tuskegee University economic development conference
including a presentation on the FDIC unbanked household survey findings.
The
initiative will focus on expansion of personal finance in other high schools,
micro and small business development, business incubators and job creation for
2010.
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Regional Initiatives page
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