Our Approach
Neighborhood Trust foresees a city where low-income individuals are informed participants in our economy, realize their potential, and achieve financial mobility and long-term, wealth creation dreams.
We pursue this goal via a comprehensive financial services model: a community development credit union as our hub, with an intensive financial education program integrated into credit union operations and embedded within community organizations most effective at reaching the unbanked, our target market.
As a result, the people we serve gain access to affordable financial services, credit establishment and asset development opportunities, and the financial education and individualized supports needed to apply these resources to long-term financial stability.
We pursue our mission as two separate legal entities, Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners and Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, as a strategy for maximizing our impact because both organizations have unique assets but are not independently sustainable. Together we are able to capitalize on our complementary strengths, resulting in a sustainable mission-oriented financial institution, and a comprehensive and action-oriented financial empowerment program.
Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union
Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union is a nonprofit, cooperative financial institution dedicated to the predominantly Latino immigrant communities of Washington Heights, Inwood and West Harlem. We are one of over 200 community development credit unions (CDCUs) in the U.S., all which share a commitment to financial empowerment and cooperative asset accumulation in low-income communities.
Our credit union is unusually equipped to serve the needs of the low-income because we are prepared to supplement the credit union's earned revenue with grants to subsidize our mission-related costs. These costs include targeted savings and loan products and transactional services, delivered with intensive counseling and supports, to assist an unbanked person to move beyond crisis mode and begin planning for their future.
Individuals and businesses who join our credit union, become shareholders who are directly supporting community reinvestment and who can actively engage in the direction of the institution over time.
Learn more about NEIGHBORHOOD TRUST and the COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CREDIT UNION MODEL.
Our Financial Education Advisory Services
Neighborhood Trust's vision is to institutionalize financial education as a fundamental component of economic development initiatives--and to promote an action-oriented model which includes financial products and services sensitive to the nontraditional financial behavior of marginalized communities.
In 2003, we launched our Community Partnership service delivery model. We deliver financial counseling and education programs within complementary community partners so that our financial services are a means to an end, such as securing housing stability, entrepreneurship, a stable retirement, or a child's education. Our programs all combine structured, formal curricula and counseling guidelines with a program design that prioritizes adaptation to our partners' clientele and existing programs. We seek to enhance our partners' own economic development services and help participants achieve very real, concrete goals. Methodical planning with our partners eliminates gaps or redundancy in services and ensures that each agency provides only their complementary expertise, maximizing the benefit to the participants.
Today Neighborhood Trust has an excellent track record with this model. We annually reach over 5,000 individuals via over 50 partners. Learn more about our OUR IMPACT.
Uniquely Trained Staff
At the heart of our success is a commitment to provide our clients with a highly professional and tailored financial counseling service. All of our educators and counselors possess expertise and specialized training in adult education techniques and social services training. All staff are mandated to possess or pursue Certified Financial Planner certification.
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