In celebration of our companions and the good work they do to advance financial progress for all, we interviewed a few of our Nasdaq Basis quarterly grant recipients about their roles, backgrounds and the significance of their work. We spoke with Ashley McLean, Senior Program Supervisor for Financial Alternative of Neighborhood Allies, on its mission to create actual, lasting alternatives for Pittsburgh residents by strengthening neighborhoods from inside and increasing entry to the sources wanted to create financial stability.
Inform us about Neighborhood Allies. What’s its core mission?
At Neighborhood Allies, we deal with constructing relationships with Pittsburgh residents and organizations to offer modern instruments and sources that uplift communities. We work to create actual, lasting alternatives by fostering collaboration, addressing wants, and driving constructive transformation. Our mission is to strengthen neighborhoods from inside, guaranteeing that everybody has entry to the sources they should thrive and construct lasting wealth, making a future the place financial stability and success are accessible to all.
Why is Neighborhood Allies’ mission so essential?
We’re guided by our North Star Aim, which is to develop our sources to speed up, scale, and maintain the work of our neighborhood companions to create wholesome neighborhoods of alternative and transfer 100,000 low-to-moderate revenue Pittsburghers up the socio-economic ladder, over the following 10 years.
We outline the socio-economic ladder as the degrees of financial and social positions in society, the place individuals can transfer up or down primarily based on elements comparable to revenue, employment & entrepreneurship, training, housing circumstances (homeownership charges), psychological well being, and entry to sources. Neighborhood Allies helps residents in Pittsburgh’s underserved communities climb this ladder by investing in each individuals and locations.
This mission is important as a result of it addresses the foundation of systemic challenges which have lengthy hindered financial progress and stability in underrepresented communities. By offering residents with the instruments and sources to drive transformative change, we’re not simply specializing in instant wants—we’re serving to to construct pathways towards generational wealth.
When neighborhood members acquire entry to alternatives that foster monetary stability, they create a ripple impact for future generations. It’s about empowering people to not solely survive however thrive, giving them the means to put money into their households and communities for years to come back. Financial wealth builds resilience, and by specializing in this, we’re actively working to make sure that progress isn’t non permanent however long-lasting. Our mission is instantly tied to serving to individuals notice this imaginative and prescient, increasing alternatives that result in monetary empowerment and stronger, extra sustainable communities.
Are you able to discuss to us in regards to the Cash Talks coaching? What influence are you hoping the Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly Grant can have on the Cash Talks coaching success?
The Cash Talks coaching is a novel, empowering area designed particularly for native Black girls, providing a supportive neighborhood the place contributors can brazenly focus on monetary challenges and alternatives. By means of common periods, professional steerage, and self-paced monetary training modules, we assist girls of colour overcome the boundaries usually confronted in constructing generational wealth. By rising their information of cash administration and investing, we’re fostering confidence and monetary independence.
The Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly Grant is instrumental in amplifying this program’s influence. With their assist, we’re in a position to develop our choices, such because the 2024 Vacation Survival Program, and supply contributors with funds to use towards their investments and monetary objectives. This grant helps us attain extra girls, deepen their monetary information, and set them on a path towards lasting wealth. We’re giving them the instruments and sources to interrupt monetary cycles and create new, generational alternatives for themselves and their households.
Are you able to share one or two tales that illustrate the influence of Neighborhood Allies?
Probably the most significant tales comes from Zxalasjea, a participant in our Cash Talks program. Earlier than becoming a member of, she felt uncertain about managing her funds and didn’t know a lot about investing. By means of this system, she gained sensible information and the arrogance to make knowledgeable selections about her monetary future.
In Zxalasjea’s personal phrases, “The Cash Talks Program opened my eyes to the world of investing. I now not really feel nervous speaking in regards to the inventory market, credit score, or financial savings. This system gave me the instruments I wanted, and now I’ve began investing and even turned a house owner.”
Zxalasjea’s expertise exhibits how Neighborhood Allies helps actual individuals acquire management of their funds, construct stability, and create the muse for generational wealth, guaranteeing a brighter monetary future.
What’s on the horizon in 2024 for Neighborhood Allies?
In 2024 and 2025, we can be providing monetary training sources on faculty planning to the dad and mom and youths concerned in Fund My Future PGH (FMF PGH), which is our financial savings program that incentivizes households to open and make deposits into long-term accounts for his or her kids. We’re additionally planning to develop sources and help to Black and/or girls entrepreneurs, comparable to entry to free monetary counseling with our Monetary Empowerment Middle and digital instruments to develop their enterprise. We’ve additionally begun a partnership with our local people faculty to establish the scholars most at risk of leaving faculty as a consequence of monetary issue to supply them help that can allow them to remain enrolled and full a level.
In celebration of our companions and the good work they do to advance financial progress for all, we interviewed a few of our Nasdaq Basis quarterly grant recipients about their roles, backgrounds and the significance of their work. We spoke with Ashley McLean, Senior Program Supervisor for Financial Alternative of Neighborhood Allies, on its mission to create actual, lasting alternatives for Pittsburgh residents by strengthening neighborhoods from inside and increasing entry to the sources wanted to create financial stability.
Inform us about Neighborhood Allies. What’s its core mission?
At Neighborhood Allies, we deal with constructing relationships with Pittsburgh residents and organizations to offer modern instruments and sources that uplift communities. We work to create actual, lasting alternatives by fostering collaboration, addressing wants, and driving constructive transformation. Our mission is to strengthen neighborhoods from inside, guaranteeing that everybody has entry to the sources they should thrive and construct lasting wealth, making a future the place financial stability and success are accessible to all.
Why is Neighborhood Allies’ mission so essential?
We’re guided by our North Star Aim, which is to develop our sources to speed up, scale, and maintain the work of our neighborhood companions to create wholesome neighborhoods of alternative and transfer 100,000 low-to-moderate revenue Pittsburghers up the socio-economic ladder, over the following 10 years.
We outline the socio-economic ladder as the degrees of financial and social positions in society, the place individuals can transfer up or down primarily based on elements comparable to revenue, employment & entrepreneurship, training, housing circumstances (homeownership charges), psychological well being, and entry to sources. Neighborhood Allies helps residents in Pittsburgh’s underserved communities climb this ladder by investing in each individuals and locations.
This mission is important as a result of it addresses the foundation of systemic challenges which have lengthy hindered financial progress and stability in underrepresented communities. By offering residents with the instruments and sources to drive transformative change, we’re not simply specializing in instant wants—we’re serving to to construct pathways towards generational wealth.
When neighborhood members acquire entry to alternatives that foster monetary stability, they create a ripple impact for future generations. It’s about empowering people to not solely survive however thrive, giving them the means to put money into their households and communities for years to come back. Financial wealth builds resilience, and by specializing in this, we’re actively working to make sure that progress isn’t non permanent however long-lasting. Our mission is instantly tied to serving to individuals notice this imaginative and prescient, increasing alternatives that result in monetary empowerment and stronger, extra sustainable communities.
Are you able to discuss to us in regards to the Cash Talks coaching? What influence are you hoping the Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly Grant can have on the Cash Talks coaching success?
The Cash Talks coaching is a novel, empowering area designed particularly for native Black girls, providing a supportive neighborhood the place contributors can brazenly focus on monetary challenges and alternatives. By means of common periods, professional steerage, and self-paced monetary training modules, we assist girls of colour overcome the boundaries usually confronted in constructing generational wealth. By rising their information of cash administration and investing, we’re fostering confidence and monetary independence.
The Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly Grant is instrumental in amplifying this program’s influence. With their assist, we’re in a position to develop our choices, such because the 2024 Vacation Survival Program, and supply contributors with funds to use towards their investments and monetary objectives. This grant helps us attain extra girls, deepen their monetary information, and set them on a path towards lasting wealth. We’re giving them the instruments and sources to interrupt monetary cycles and create new, generational alternatives for themselves and their households.
Are you able to share one or two tales that illustrate the influence of Neighborhood Allies?
Probably the most significant tales comes from Zxalasjea, a participant in our Cash Talks program. Earlier than becoming a member of, she felt uncertain about managing her funds and didn’t know a lot about investing. By means of this system, she gained sensible information and the arrogance to make knowledgeable selections about her monetary future.
In Zxalasjea’s personal phrases, “The Cash Talks Program opened my eyes to the world of investing. I now not really feel nervous speaking in regards to the inventory market, credit score, or financial savings. This system gave me the instruments I wanted, and now I’ve began investing and even turned a house owner.”
Zxalasjea’s expertise exhibits how Neighborhood Allies helps actual individuals acquire management of their funds, construct stability, and create the muse for generational wealth, guaranteeing a brighter monetary future.
What’s on the horizon in 2024 for Neighborhood Allies?
In 2024 and 2025, we can be providing monetary training sources on faculty planning to the dad and mom and youths concerned in Fund My Future PGH (FMF PGH), which is our financial savings program that incentivizes households to open and make deposits into long-term accounts for his or her kids. We’re additionally planning to develop sources and help to Black and/or girls entrepreneurs, comparable to entry to free monetary counseling with our Monetary Empowerment Middle and digital instruments to develop their enterprise. We’ve additionally begun a partnership with our local people faculty to establish the scholars most at risk of leaving faculty as a consequence of monetary issue to supply them help that can allow them to remain enrolled and full a level.
