Common Cents

Project Report | Oct 16, 2018
MLGW uses "Common Cents" with customers struggling with balancing budgets

By Tangela Morgan | Development Director

Common Cents Class Participants

Making ends meet is tough sometimes and, in many instances, hard choices need to be made to keep families afloat. In Memphis, Tennessee the city’s utility company wants to help its customers turn those hard choices into smart choices.

On Saturday, September 20, 2018 from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm. RISE Foundation teamed up with members of Memphis Light, Gas and Water On-Track program to conduct a Common Cents workshop for 27 customers who are behind on their utility accounts.

MLGW began the series of workshops for delinquent account holders to encourage customers to begin the hard conversations of financial budgeting and planning. Collaborating with the RISE Foundation was the perfect fit for their program because the Common Cents curriculum is designed to meet people where they currently are in their financial struggle. Common Cents is uniquely effective by providing participants with valuable information that enables them to better manage their financial resources and make better financial choices in an environment that is nurturing, peer-guided and inclusive.

The workshop is designed to cover the topics of creating/maintaining a spending plan and managing credit. While taking the class, On-Track customers where instructed through a combination of one-on-one discussion and interactive exercises.

The attendees were attentive and eager to learn. They were especially interested in the discussions around utilizing credit wisely and asked many questions about techniques that they could use to re-build and sustain their credit history.

The class attendees remarked that the group budget exercises were very insightful because they simulated a family making financial choices on a set income. This scenario was very similar to their own daily experiences and made the class feel very real and impactful for them.

Memphis is proud of the work that MLGW is doing to overcome poverty in our communities. With the help of more companies just like them, the RISE Foundation will be able to introduce more families to the principles of utilizing a spending plan and designing budgets that work through the tough times smarter.

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Jun 18, 2018
Workplace Benefits: A Common Cents Solution

By Tangela Morgan | Development Director

RISE at Bank Fair

At a recent financial wellness and education fair hosted by area banking institutions in Memphis and open to all residents of Memphis and Shelby County, RISE discussed its available programs and what benefits we offer to assist employers in educating its workforce in credit repair and sustaining financial health.

Through the Common Cents Series area employers both large and small have an opportunity to educate their workforce over a weekly or monthly timeframe that allows employees to gather in groups offered in the workplace and discuss strategies to combat debt and repair credit using the RISE curriculum.

The RiSE Foundation has successfully formulated a method of reciprecal instruction for the Common Cents program that empowers employers with an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) benefit that provides additional resources for HR professionals and delivers strong ROI that the Common Cents series guarantees for their EAP utilization.

RISE has historically proven that Common Cents works and is a valuable benefit for employers to offer their employees. This much needed benefit of financial literacy awareness assists in various ways for employers, mainly increased productivity and decreased absenteeism because of less financial stress by employees utilizing work hours to address financial crises. Employees directly benefit by taking advantage of services offered on their job and with the support of their coworkers and managers.

Many companies welcome a solution to their low EAP use, RISE shows them how they can boost their EAP participation through the Common Cents Series. Although there are other programs available, there are few that address financial literacy with the same customization approach as Common Cents.

The financial wellness and education fair was a huge sucess and the collaboration of local NPO, banking institutions and CDC groups proved that Memphis and its citizens are serious about improving the cities poverty rate and circumstances of our communities.

To learn more about the RISE Common Cents Series or any of the programs that the RISE Foundatioin offers please visit our website at risememphis.org. Your critical support helps RISE to serve low-income families with financial education and break the cycle of generational poverty in Memphis.

Fair Partners

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Mar 19, 2018
Emmanuel Center triumphs with Common Cents

By Tangela Morgan | Development Director

class discussion

In Memphis, Tennessee there is an organization that has been working to provide poor Memphians an exodus to hope since 1989. The Emmanuel Center (EC) has helped hundreds of families living in poverty improve their circumstances by linking them to their wide circle of community resources. EC is constantly networking with human service agencies, partnering churches, social service organizations, and other ministries to coordinate support programs in the South Memphis neighborhood formerly known as Foote Homes.

Today, this community is better known as South City, and efforts are underway to bring residents that relocated due to the redevelopment back to their roots. And with the help of deep investment and community revitalization efforts of organizations like the Women's Foundation of Greater Memphis (WFGM) and the RISE Foundation, former residents like Ms. Juanita S are taking part in Common Cents classes instituted to ensure that they are returning to their former communities as financially acute homeowners.

Ms. Juanita came to the class to get a strategic plan in place to combat her credit card debt, with the help of RISE, she was able to formulate a plan that included eventually establishing her seasonal hobby into supplemental income that she could apply to paying down her debt. Her spending plan also focused on making a strong effort to keep her card balances below 30 percent of their limit. "This class has been very empowering for me", Juanita said. “I can't wait to finally take charge of my finances now that I have had the opportunity to hear someone explain to me why I've had setbacks when trying to correct my credit problems”.

The Emmanuel Center Common Cents class was organized by the WFGM and was facilitated by RISE. Class participants were engaged and full of questions about how credit is established, accumulated and analyzed. As with so many groups like these, there was a greater need to understand how to manage the money that currently comes into their households. The Center’s clients are residents of the 38126 ZIP Code in South Memphis – one of the poorest communities in the nation. Poverty runs rampant here. Almost two-thirds live at or below the poverty line – including a third who scrape by at 50% of the poverty level (less than $12,000 a year for a family of four). More than half are unemployed and less than half have graduated high school.

RISE provided a curriculum packed with realistic expectations and achievable first steps in debt management. Sound practices of saving and budgeting were heavily emphasized. Class participants were surprised to find that a carefully crafted spending plan would allow for any budget to implement a savings strategy.

After undertaking several debt management scenarios, class attendants felt that they had overcome their greatest challenge, the fear of acknowledging bad spending habits. "This class that RISE has shared with us is a huge benefit, now I can reduce my financial stress and help my grandchildren to make better choices when it comes to handling money" said Ms. Juanita. With the tools that they received from the Common Cents class, participants felt that they were now capable of improving their financial stability.

EC member

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