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Posts Tagged ‘community development’
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Urban Partnership Bank rises to continue the legacy of community development. We normally don’t blog about ourselves, but we wanted to share news about our new bank, Urban Partnership Bank, discuss its continued commitment to community development, and to introduce you to our management team!
Urban Partnership Bank, an FDIC-insured, Illinois chartered bank will focus on providing continued availability of financial services for low and moderate income communities in Chicago’s South and West Sides, Cleveland, OH, and Detroit, MI.
Branches of the acquired institution will reopen during normal business hours as branches of Urban Partnership Bank. Depositors of ShoreBank (other than certain brokered deposits) will automatically become depositors of Urban Partnership Bank, and their deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC up to applicable limits. Additional information is available on the FDIC’s website at www.fdic.gov.
David Vitale will serve as Chairman of Urban Partnership Bank. Bill Farrow will serve as President and Chief Executive Officer. The new bank was capitalized by financial institutions, philanthropic organizations and socially responsible individuals from Chicago and nationally. Urban Partnership Bank enters the market as “well-capitalized” with a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 8%, and has sufficient capital to meet pre-opening expenses, projected growth, and overall capital needs.
“Urban Partnership Bank will provide access to financial services and support to distressed neighborhoods in order to help transform distressed neighborhoods into strong, stable communities,” said David Vitale. “The private investment in this new financial institution demonstrates commitment to restoring the economic vitality of our communities,” added Vitale.
Vitale announced that Urban Partnership Bank will apply to become a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), reflecting its mission to serve low and moderate income and minority communities. The new bank will also continue to support energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly development.
“We have complete confidence in the leadership and ability of David Vitale and his team to make Urban Partnership Bank an effective resource for growing small businesses, creating new jobs, strengthening nonprofits and renovating abandoned and neglected real estate that will help restore the economic vitality of our communities,” said Lester H.McKeever, Jr., CPA, Managing Principal, Washington, Pittman & McKeever, LLC, and community leader.
Tags: community development, David Vitale, FDIC, ShoreBank, urban partnership bank
Posted in Outreach | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Feb.4 , 2010 (Bloomberg News) – Betting on declines in US Treasury bonds is a “no brainer,” said Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan. “Every single human being should have that trade,” Taleb said at a conference in Moscow.
Mr Taleb’s runaway best-seller posited the idea that the unexpected is actually commonplace or, to put it plainly, 100-year storms come along about every 18 months. The recent housing crash is one such event, which Mr Taleb collectively labels “black swans.”
We should not feel too bad about our difficulty in anticipating the unexpected. Humans evolved 195,000 years ago on the grasslands of Africa. We learned to survive by recognizing patterns of cyclicality in Nature and behaviors in the animal kingdom. Those fundamental abilities are baked in our DNA. We are born assuming that everything will be more or less the same and that even change will follow a recognizable pattern. The sun will always rise in the east; the grass will be green in summer and brown in winter.
Change in the financial markets means that the price of assets like stocks or bonds can either rise or fall. Such price movements, when they are large, are always unexpected because of the fundamental way we understand change. So a big, sudden move in the price of, say, the 10-year US Treasury note, can be considered a black swan. The dilemma is that the price of the 10-year Treasury Note can move either up or down.
The black swan that Mr Taleb predicted so confidently six months ago was that long-term Treasury prices would fall sharply, resulting in much higher interest rates. Instead long-term Treasury prices have risen sharply and rates have fallen. Since February 4th, the 10-year Treasury note has lost 6.25% of it value, which means that if “every human being,” all 6.7 billion of us, had put on the trade Mr Taleb suggested to the tune of $10, the world would be about $4.2 billion poorer. (It’s unclear, of course, who would have taken the other side of the trade. God perhaps.)
My point is not to attack the black swan thesis, which is a valuable insight into our knowledge of the world. Rather, my point is that white swans, figuratively the events we call no-brainers, may not be what they seem either. Whatever their color, swans look elegant in the water, with their long necks and stately motion. But out of the water, they are ungainly creatures with nasty tempers to boot.
Tags: community development, economic predictors, financial crisis, green banking, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Banking Industry | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Who doesn’t love free outdoor cultural activities, especially ones that provide value far beyond entertainment? It is no secret that free public programs makes the arts and their environment backdrop more accessible to residents and visitors. If exhibits and displays can help build a stronger community, why then are more free events not taking place in the underserved communities that might most benefit from them?
Local parks districts often do a great job evenly distributing their diverse free arts programming (movies, concerts, and dance in parks) through out various neighborhoods; however, that does not mean it appropriately serves every neighborhood. Underserved neighborhoods often have language and financial barriers that inhibit them from feeling a sense of connection to the greater community. The universality of the arts can bridge those barriers. For example, although opera is typically associated with high-income, when a former colleague of mine delivered free opera programs to low- to mid-income communities in Sacramento, she told me that her audience, many of whom spoke Spanish as their first language, more easily understood and related to the Italian opera than their English speaking neighbors. It just exhibits how this free program and others can remove language and financial barriers to create a sense of connectivity.
That sense of connectivity can serve as a catalyst of positive change for communities. For instance, when Chicago low- to mid-income neighborhood West Humboldt Park hosts events, which range from Chicago SummerDance in the Parks (let’s Bomba on 7/21/10) to Movies in the Park (let’s see Yo Soy Boricua, Pa’que to lo Sepas on 7/24/10) to En Movimiento (a program that combines salsa dancing, tai chi, basketball, bike riding, steel drum music, and muévete), it finds it reaps the following community benefits (1):
- A bridge over time where you can see and/or speak with people who you only see at that specific event every month or year.
- A community connection that allows people to run into neighborhoods and catch up on news and info.
- A safe environment created by crowds where many types of people can mix and get to know each other. And the more you know, the more you grow!
Plus, these programs have the capability to be effective tools for economic development. The more people that attend from outside the community, the greater the opportunity to generate new revenues from the money spent by visitors at local attractions and businesses. Programs also fosters civic pride in the area and respect for the neighborhood that makes it more likely to be where people will want to go to live and work. (2) And it just takes arts!
So amidst a period of declining resources, how can we help support more free cultural events in underserved communities?
- Support arts organizations that develop cultural programs for underserved communities.
- Enlist unemployed or part-time artist friends to volunteer their performance and teaching talents.
- Volunteer or donate your own talents and resources.
- Create artist housing in the most underserved communities.
- Write blogs or letters to the editor on arts advocacy in underserved neighborhoods.
- Recommend cultural event sponsorships to your employer.
- Check out a free event in one of these communities and to tell your friends.
You might be pleasantly surprised, delightfully entertained, and easily building a community, all without it costing you a dime. Who doesn’t love that?
Love ShoreBank Voices? Help me tell others that where they bank does make a difference and leave a comment or subscribe to the ShoreBank Voices feed.
(1) http://communitybeat.blogspot.com/2008/09/value-of-community-events.html
(2) http://www.railstotrails.org/resources/documents/resource_docs/tgc_economic.pdf
Tags: arts programming, buy local, community development, cultural events, free
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
The education profession in America is under attack. School districts are laying off teachers, increasing class sizes, and cutting “frills” like art, music, and sports. Those teachers fortunate enough to have jobs are blamed when their classes fail to perform well on standardized tests. They are burdened with an ever-increasing load of paperwork, in the name of “accountability.” They are virtually prohibited from displaying initiative and creativity by administrators who have never been taught even the rudiments of management and are themselves evaluated solely by test scores.
Successful primary education is a partnership between parents, students, and teachers. Parents must provide a home environment that encourages learning. Students must take responsibility for their work. Teachers must motivate children to learn. Absent the first two, the best teacher in the world will fail. But in America today, only the teacher is blamed when students perform poorly. Why? Because, though both teachers and parents are voters, there are a lot more of the latter than the former. And, for reasons that are too deep for me to fathom, we can only see children as victims, not as contributors to their own success or failure.
Twenty-five hedge fund managers made $1 billion or more last year. I suspect that every one of them came from families that actively encouraged education, and that they all were ambitious in school. At the other end of the scale, in a weakening economy, where there are six applicants for every job opening, many would-be workers simply lack the skills to compete. What consolation is it to them, and what good is it to us a society, to realize too late that “bad teaching” is a false and futile excuse.
Tags: community development, economic predictors, education, teacher accountability, unemployment rate
Posted in Banking Industry | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
This guest post from Aldra is part of ShoreBank’s new 5th Tuesday ShoreBank Fan post series. Aldra is a grant writer who found her way into the non-profit sector via her membership with AmeriCorps VISTA. With more than 10 years in the non-profit industry, she learned the fine art of living a good life with a small salary and a commitment to social justice. She is the author of Consciously Frugal and a ShoreBank Facebook Fan.
Although personal finance books are quite popular, few have garnered the notoriety enjoyed by Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin (later editions include author Monique Tilford). Even though Your Money or Your Life was first published nearly 20 years ago, you can still find a study group in virtually every city working the book’s holistic, nine-step program.
The program asks participants to base their earning, saving and spending patterns on their core values. My core values are simple. I believe that my purpose on this spinning blue ball is to ensure that all people have the right to health, safety, security, and happiness. If I truly believe that, then I must pay attention to the how and who of the products that I purchase (Is it sourced from sustainable practices? Are the workers fairly treated and compensated?). It eventually dawned on me that this sort of thinking should extend to all my fiscal activities, not just when I buy stuff. But in a culture devoted to upward mobility and the material trappings of “success,” reorienting our financial lives to an internal compass is a radical concept.
As I began to align my finances with my values, I investigated the world of banking. What was my monolithic bank doing with all those billions of dollars? Who was benefiting from my deposits and the interest I paid on loans? To whom did they market their credit cards?
I didn’t like much of what I found. I discovered that I was putting my money into a system that seemed to disempower and exploit people. I knew that there had to be a better way. The primary thing I wanted to see in a financial institution was an active engagement in bettering the community. I also wanted to see a measure of respect for clients, regardless of income levels or portfolio dollars. Community reinvestment is a concrete example of that respect.
After spending a few months hunting for a bank that invested in communities, I found ShoreBank. Through ShoreBank Direct’s online savings account, I am earning interest on my savings far above that being offered by my previous bank while knowing that my money is also being put to good use.
However, what I have most enjoyed about transitioning to a community development financial institution is the human connection. Through blogs, email correspondence, and Facebook interactions, I have been able to engage with staff and fellow ShoreBank customers, and discuss political, environmental and social issues important to us all. It gives me hope that amidst all the economic doom and gloom of late, we can find ways to create a values-based economy in which all of us are respected and empowered.
Love ShoreBank Voices? Help me tell others that where they bank does make a difference and leave a comment or subscribe to the ShoreBank Voices feed.
Tags: community development, move your money, ShoreBank Direct, socially responsible investing, your money or your life
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
What would the world be like if we all lived in communities where everyone had access to healthy foods, quality education, and a safe environment? It is easier than you might think. I believe that world can come true in one particular moment or event, such as the World Cup.
Who watched the England vs. United States World Cup match on Saturday? Where did you watch it? Did you watch it with friends, neighbors, and strangers? And who did you high five when the U.S. scored? Although it may not have been the most beautiful goal, did you still high five anybody who you could reach? I did! Sporting events have this amazing ability to bring us together. The rush that comes from knowing other people from around the world simultaneously have their eyes glued to the same match creates an amazing sense of international camaraderie. It’s a sense that compels you to want to accomplish virtually anything with those people. And that sense has enormous power and potential to make inroads towards working together on a myriad of issues.
How can we translate these effects into similar events to unite our communities? Here are a few lessons that I derived from the watching World Cup and from participating in the Chicago Black Hawks’ Stanley Cup victory celebration that I think can help us to “World Cup-ize” our own community process:
- The event needs multiple or incremental phases, like first and second round playoffs. Yes, of course, I wish it were easy, but the more matches we face in the playoffs, the more we bond as fans and the greater our thirst for victory.
- This event must make us feel like we are a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. We then become proud of the Ghana Soccer Team’s first World Cup victory for an African nation on African soil rather than of us as individuals.
- It needs to be something that a) many have a vested interest in b) that all people feel and are welcome to attend, but c) that will not negatively harm anybody’s person or human rights. In the U.S., all are welcome to attend and cheer for sports games, but the outcome of the game will not negatively impact the opponents’ human rights (even though it may hurt their feelings).
- We should initially gain an unconditional reward. The team’s accomplishment may not happen again or it might lose next year, so the reward is the ability to reap, enjoy, and savor the moment with friends and family.
- We need some magic – the successful game-winning “Hail Mary” pass, the overtime Black Hawks goal, or the Paraguay beautiful shot. “Magic” provides safe excitement and the belief that the “impossible” is possible.
These events, whether they are far away in South Africa, at Chicago’s United Center, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, or in our own backyards, have the opportunity to bring more people to together in a common spirit and purpose to create a stronger more vibrant community where people will want to live, work, and to play.
But we need more! What else can we, as Americans, do to create our own community World Cup?
Tags: community development, world cup
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Raise your hand if you spent your adolescent summers doing household chores, attending camps, or volunteering? Do you still summer like that? I don’t. After years of Girl Scouts service projects, band camp attendance, and hours of daily household chores, I now do little more in the summer than pack organic picnic baskets and attend free concerts in the park. But what if I put the baskets away and actually created a to-do list similar to the one I had as a youth, only with a triple bottom line goal instead? What impact could I make with these summer 2010 triple bottom line to-dos?:
Financial:
- “Green” clean my finances. I am going to sign up for as many autopilot online and paperless banking products as I can.
- “Green” my budget. I need to revamp my food, housing, and entertainment budgets for the appropriate amount of organic product, air conditioning (or in my case – a lack there of), and travel expenditures.
- Re-evaluate my 401(K) to participate in socially responsible investments. I did evaluate my 401(K) as promised in my 2010 resolutions; however, I want to verify that my portfolio has not modified in whom it invests and re-adjust my investments accordingly.
- Go 2 weekends without drinking non-water beverage and donate the savings. According to MSN Money, Americans spend more on beer from Memorial Day through Labor Day than at any other time of the year. There is more than one nonprofit that can use my donation.
Community:
- Meet My Neighbors. Not only does it improve community cohesion, but it also increases my safety, as neighbors you know are more likely to alert you if there is suspicious behavior around your neighborhood.
- Support local businesses at street festivals. Street festivals can really provide an economic impact for a community.
- Volunteer for at least 4 hours per month. Volunteers reduce organizational cost while helping to improve the community. And when a community is doing well as a whole, its individuals are better off, too.
Environment:
- Pick up litter for at least one hour. According to Every Monday Matters, if every person picked up one piece of litter today, there would be over 300 million fewer pieces of litter.
- Invest in a urban window garden. I still haven’t completed this resolution! But I think I have added another 3,000 pounds of CO2 from flying this year. It is time.
- Eco-shred all of my hoarded paper. I don’t know how paper adds up, but somehow, all of a sudden, I have stacks of unsolicited credit card offers and napkins everywhere!
Think about the impact that I alone can make with this triple bottom line to-do list! Help me stay on track and join me in becoming a triple bottom line summer activist. The “What does ‘Green’ mean to me?” Facebook photo contest runners up have already gotten on board! Who else is with me?
“What does ‘Green’ mean to me” Facebook Contest Runners Up Photos:
Tags: community development, green banking, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Is travel for tourism a human right? Although we might question this recent argument by the EU for subsidizing travel for low-income citizens, I agree with one reason behind its proposal – that travel for tourism can have positive economic, community, and environmental benefits, especially for small towns and local businesses. The more people who can travel, the greater than impact! But, I also think there is quicker low-cost way to responsibly increase access to travel. That way: a staycation to a low- or moderate-income neighborhood.
According to Wikipedia, “a ‘staycation’ is a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes or takes day trips from their home to area attractions.” Many amazing things to see and do are nestled in low- or moderate-income neighborhoods. For example, in Chicago, you can take in jazz at the Sunset Café in Bronzeville, the Pullman Historic District in Pullman, or golf at the South Shore Cultural Center. Or, in San Francisco, you can check out the murals in Balmy Alley in the Mission, music at the Great American Music Hall in the Tenderloin, or watch the World Cup at The Pig & Whistle in Western Addition. If you look for it, almost every low- to moderate-income neighborhood has something great to see or do.
Not only are staycations fun, but they can also be far less costly, both financially and environmentally, than a traditional vacation. The American Automobile Association determined the average North American vacation would cost $244/day for two people for just lodging and meals. That doesn’t include travel and carbon output. Can you imagine the economic and environmental impact we could create if we spent the same amount of money in low- to moderate-income communities without flying there? Our reallocated tourism dollars might help create the same support in our city’s neighborhoods that the EU is trying to stimulate.
Many people want to make socially responsible actions, but get inundated by the plethora of options. A staycation is one step that everyone can take. Try it!
1.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100943.ece
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staycation
Tags: community development, green transportation, socially responsible investing, socially responsible travel, ways to reduce carbon
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Stephanie McHenry, president of ShoreBank’s Cleveland Banking region, recently spoke at the Cleveland City Club on community banks and the instrumental role they can play in leading an inclusive economic recovery. You may not know that since beginning work in Cleveland in 1994, ShoreBank has invested more than $300 million in Greater Cleveland neighborhoods for developing sustainable, residential and commercial properties and growing small businesses. Now is your change to learn more about Stephanie and our work in Cleveland.
An active board member, Stephanie serves on local governing bodies, including those of the Cleveland State University, and ideastream® (public radio and television). And in 2007 she was named one of Crain’s “Women of Note” and received a YWCA “Woman of Achievement” award in 2008.
Enjoy listening to her City Club presentation “Banking to Change the World: Creating Jobs and Empowering Communities” here. What are your thoughts on her presentation?
Tags: city club cleveland, community development, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Community | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Times are tough all over. This month’s Atlantic Monthly magazine carries a thought provoking and thoroughly dispiriting article by Don Peck called, “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America.” Peck quotes Kathryn Edin, who teaches public policy at Harvard, describing her recent research in South Philadelphia. “These white working-class communities—once strong, vibrant, proud communities, often organized around big industries—they’re just in terrible straits. The social fabric is just shredding. There’s little engagement in religious life, and the old civic organizations that people used to belong to are fading. Drugs have ravaged these communities, along with divorce, alcoholism, violence.” That’s an ugly picture, but the worst is yet to come. “I hang around these neighborhoods in South Philadelphia, and I think, ‘This is beginning to look like the black inner-city neighborhoods we’ve been studying for the past 20 years.’”
Edin’s comments unintentionally point out that many people have long-ago written off mostly-minority neighborhoods. Except, of course, the people who live in those neighborhoods. Despite the tremendous stresses of lost jobs, tumbling home values, and growing neglect from the larger community, the residents of the minority neighborhoods ShoreBank serves continue to care deeply.
The reason is that people in our communities can put down roots. Unlike in wealthy suburban areas, several generations can afford to live in the same neighborhood. There are few “For Sale” signs because homes are often passed on to the next generation, other relatives, or friends. There is a vibrancy and cohesion that ShoreBank recognized from the beginning and continues to value, and indeed, to rely on.
But, all the economic data—national, state, and local—lead inexorably to the same conclusion: the downturn has hit minorities much harder than white Americans. For blacks as a whole, this is not a recession, but a full-scale depression. As a general rule of thumb, the numbers show that, however bad things are for whites, they are twice as bad for blacks. However good things are for whites, they are half as good for blacks. The ramifications of racism live on.
Tags: community development, economic predictors, financial crisis, ShoreBank, triple bottom line, unemployment rate
Posted in Banking Industry | No Comments »
