Community Impact Focus Area: Income

2011 Accomplishments

Together with the help of loyal supporters, United Way Capital Area’s Income initiative accomplished some great things this past year. We’ve helped:

• 4,399 people open bank accounts in 9 months, saving them more than $1.7 million in check-cashing fees.
  -Bank on Central Texas is a community initiative led by United Way Capital Area and PeopleFund to bring together banks, credit unions, financial services providers, government, private sector, community organizations, and nonprofits to help Central Texas get bank accounts. By opening an account, people save fees that check cashers charge.
• 2,300 low-income individuals learn how to manage their finances.
  -Through coordination and advocacy, UWCA promotes long term financial stability including financial education as a means to equip Central Texans with necessary tools to make better financial decisions.
• 18,000 neighbors find free tax assistance, for a total of $29 million in refunds.
  -Free tax assistance to obtain the Earned Income Tax credit provides great economic benefits for low-income people in Central Texas. Through the United Way Helpline, UWCA connects adults to this incentive to help them escape poverty and support their efforts to build savings.

Goal: Empowering families with the knowledge and tools to become financially stable

As the saying goes, "Sometimes, there's too much month left at the end of the money." And for far too many Central Texas, this is the reality: work hard, make a little money, pay for the bare minimums, then do it all again with the next paycheck.

The result? Almost half of us are living in poverty or teetering precariously on the brink of it. In fact, 40% of Central Texas families live below the Family Budget Estimator (FBE)---the real and basic costs of living in our region.

The United Way Strategy

When it comes to making families financially safe, we are focused on employment, housing, and financial management initiatives. By doing so, we hope to help families make more money and increase their assets.

Bank On Central Texas

Bank On Central Texas is a community initiative led by United Way and PeopleFund to bring together banks, credit unions, financial services providers, government, private sector, community organizations, and nonprofits to bring more people into the financial mainstream. In it's first 9 months BOCT helped open 4,300 bank accounts.

Click here to learn more

Bank On Central Texas recently published Understanding the Impact of Alternative Financial Services: A Quick Reference Guide for Employers and Community Organizations, which provides information on products and services such as payday lending, rent-to-own and debt settlement. It also provides resources and alternative options. Download it here.