Self-Help Shares

Last week we at Self-Help joined credit unions all over the world in celebrating International Credit Union Day – more about that below. First, we want to give you an update on a member we’ve featured in this space before: Mr. Lee Curry, a resident of the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. On October 22, Mr. Curry celebrated his 102^nd birthday!

During the past two years of the pandemic, many small business owners have shown great determination and resilience even through tough economic times. Self-Help has had the privilege of partnering with many small businesses as they recover. Here’s a recent example in Jacksonville, Florida, contributed by Area Manager Megan Nissley.

On September 30, 2021, there was much joy in downtown Durham, NC as new residents, housing advocates and project partners celebrated the grand opening of Willard Street Apartments. Beginning with the vision of local advocates, this high-quality housing located adjacent to the City’s transit center in the heart of downtown Durham is the result of collaboration among Self-Help Ventures Fund and DHIC (co-developers) with support from many other community partners.

Every day, Self-Help staff are privileged to hear personal stories from our members. As we work together on loans and other financial services, we get to know each other. In Milwaukee, our staff at Seaway Bank, a division of Self-Help Federal Credit Union, have had the pleasure of meeting Andre Jones, a man who has had great determination to build a better life. Andre has generously shared his story with us.

Earlier this year Self-Help made a commitment to multiply the benefits of staff vaccines in the communities that we serve. For every Self-Help staffer who receives a vaccine, Self-Help is donating $100 to a local nonprofit working to support those impacted by COVID-19 or whose mission is fighting health disparities.

In 2020, we served more than 167,000 credit union members in 69 locations across seven states. Our top priority was the safety and well-being of our members and staff. Working with partners, we also continued our day-to-day work of boosting homeownership, expanding access to capital, advocating for fair lending policies, and investing in communities that have been underserved in mainstream markets. See highlights and results in our 2020 annual report.

Congratulations to this year’s Self-Help Scholarship winners! Each Self-Help branch had an opportunity to award a scholarship to student in their community who demonstrated a commitment to community service. In line with our mission, we seek students who are not only focused on academics and leadership, but who also want to help make the world a better place. Each person selected receives an award of $1,000 paid directly to the student’s school to cover tuition or other expenses.

Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other farmers of color are skilled agriculturalists and business operators that have made exceptional contributions to the American food system. These contributions have dramatically influenced the foods we eat, the crops we grow, and the farming practices we use to produce those crops. A few of these important contributions include regenerative farming practices like crop rotation and composting, the community-supported agriculture (CSA) model, farming cooperatives and refrigerated transportation systems. However, seemingly at every turn, U.S. policy and practices have created systemic barriers to economic prosperity for BIPOC farmers and food entrepreneurs.

Juneteenth is a time to celebrate freedom while remembering we still have a long way to go to achieve racial equality. The fight for civil rights and economic justice have always been at the heart of Self-Help’s mission. This week as we prepare to say goodbye to two esteemed colleagues at our affiliate, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), we want to lift up the remarkable work they accomplished to move our mission forward.

In 1970, 42% of Black families owned a home. In recent times, the homeownership rate for Black householders has hovered around 44% -- not a big difference. In this post, we discuss how previous gains in homeownership have been erased for families of color, and how Self-Help offers greater financing flexibility to help expand homeownership opportunities in the communities we serve.