Self-Help Shares

Dear Members and Friends,

We’re only in the second quarter, but already this has been an eventful year. In January, Self-Help Federal Credit Union merged with Community Trust Federal Credit Union, a small institution with a large local impact serving farmworkers in rural Apopka, Florida. In February, we launched a new mortgage program (The Affordable Loan Solution™) with Bank of America and Freddie Mac, and we are expanding that program with other partners to be announced soon.  Most recently, Self-Help Credit Union merged with Greater Piedmont Credit Union, a North Carolina credit union with 6,000 members representing a dozen employers.

These recent events built on a strong performance last year – for a fun summary, see our 2015 Online Annual Report.  Last year, we made $308 million in loans that helped create new homeowners, launched small businesses, revitalized neighborhoods and expanded community facilities such as charter schools and child care centers. We’ve also increased our focus on financing for clean energy and improving access to healthy foods. Together, Self Help Credit Union and Self-Help Federal Credit Union now provide fair and affordable services to 125,000 members in North Carolina, California, Illinois and Florida. 

While providing direct banking services in the states we serve, we also fight for fair lending everywhere.

What do you get when you cross a financial institution with a passion for building stronger communities?

You get a community development banker. And Self-Help had the honor of hosting more than two dozen of them this week as community development professionals from all over the country attended our Community Development Banking Seminar. 

Today if residents of northeast Greensboro want fresh food, they must walk several miles or take a cab—but that’s about to change. On March 16, Self-Help and Renaissance Community Co-op signed a 10-year lease for a 10,530-square-foot grocery store in the Renaissance Shops at Phillips Avenue.  

Self-Help has partnered with the City of Greensboro to revitalize a nearly-abandoned shopping center that is now becoming Renaissance Shops. The first new tenant will be a cooperative store that brings fresh, healthy food to a neighborhood that has spent nearly 20 years working to get a local grocery store.

John M. Jones, Renaissance Community Co-op board president, holds up the 10-year lease with Kim Cameron, director of real estate for Self-Help Ventures. Photo credit: Fund for Democratic Communities (F4DC).

When people are making their communities a better place while pursuing more education, we want to help. Each of the 18 Self-Help branches in North Carolina will award a $500 scholarship to a local student enrolled in an accredited post-secondary educational institution.  Eligible institutions include colleges, universities, technical, trade and vocational schools. (view additional guidelines and requirements)

See many of last year's scholarship winners here.

Building good credit is a process that takes time and patience. To give people an extra boost, both Self Help Credit Union and our affiliate, Self-Help Federal Credit Union (SHFCU), offer loans specifically designed to help members build or establish a good credit history.

The Self Help Credit Union loan is called Credit Builder. In California, Chicago and Florida, Self-Help Federal CU calls it the “Fresh Start” loan.  Both of these loans work the same way:

• Customers take out a loan they can afford.
• The loan funds go into a limited-access savings account.
• As customers pay off the loan, Self-Help reports the repayments to credit agencies.
• When the loan is paid off, customers receive the full amount of the loan, plus dividends.

Recently, with funding from MetLife Foundation, Self-Help conducted a study to assess the effectiveness of the Fresh Start loan. We found that the Fresh Start loan has boosted credit score for 70% of borrowers. Find out more about the study here, as well as general information about the components of a credit score. 

It's internship application time at Self-Help - something we take very seriously. We believe that providing opportunity for students to experience work in the community development field is good for them and good for us! Our Durham office is especially fortunate to be close so many wonderful universities. 

Many of our interns go on to become full-time staff at Self-Help, work for other community development financial institutions (CDFIs) or do other great things. Former intern Maggie West is a great example. She went on to found the Community Empowerment Fund, a student-powered nonprofit organization focused on enabling and sustaining transitions out of homelessness and poverty. 

 

We also believe it's important to pay interns. After all, they do valuable work for us! The deadline to apply for this summer's internships is February 26. You can find more information on our careers page. 

Self-Help’s mission is to create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for all, especially people of color, women, rural residents and low-wealth families and communities. With that in mind, we are recognizing February as Black History Month by featuring a small bit of North Carolina’s African-American history in connection with some of the cities where we have branches.

 

More than three decades ago, Sister Ann Kendrick and several other nuns began working in Apopka, Florida to serve farmworkers and other low-income families. One of their many accomplishments was starting the Community Trust Federal Credit Union to provide fair, affordable financial services in the community.

Last fall when the nuns needed a partner to expand services to their members, they thought of Self-Help. After many talks with Sister Ann and her colleagues as well as friends at the Florida Community Loan Fund, our CEO Martin Eakes knew we had to make room for another partner at our table. After all, it’s pretty hard to resist the call of four amazing community activist nuns who are praying for your support.

The result, we’re pleased to announce, is that Self-Help has merged with Community Trust Federal Credit Union in Apopka, Florida. Effective January 1, the Florida credit union is now part of Self-Help Federal Credit Union, which also operates in California and Chicago. To understand how the Apopka CU is a great fit with Self-Help’s mission, please watch this wonderful interview with Sister Ann as she recalls her history as a change agent in Apopka.

The video was funded by ArtReach Orlando and produced in collaboration with the Hope CommUnity Center.

If you've ever dreamed of owning a small business, or even if you've already started one, you know that lack of capital can stop a dream dead in its tracks. The good news is that there may be more options for getting that capital than you realize! The even better news is that this year, the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) is expanding those options. 

Self-Help exists to create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for all, especially people of color, women, rural residents and low-wealth families and communities—a mission that seems particularly relevant as we mark the 87th birthday of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our founding in 1980 was greatly influenced by Dr. King and the unfinished business of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In essence, the work of Self-Help is our sincere effort to fulfill the dream of Dr. King.

Toward the end of his remarkable life, Dr. King became increasingly more vocal in addressing economic injustice in America. Unfortunately, more than 50 years after the pivotal 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, our nation continues to grapple with many of the same concerns, including these:

• Homelessness and hunger. In North Carolina alone, more than 55,000 children are homeless, and more than one in four don’t get enough to eat.
• Mass incarceration. More than 2.2 million people now crowd America’s prisons; 60% of them are African-American or Hispanic.
• Wealth disparities. Before the housing crisis of 2008, the wealth and homeownership gap between whites and people of color was gradually getting smaller. But in recent years the share of black homeowners has dropped by nearly 20% and, overall, people of color have lost all the economic ground previously gained, plus more.
• Poverty and low wages. According to the U.S. Census, 46.7 million Americans live in poverty, many of them working for a minimum wage that has not kept up with today’s cost of living.