BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Carol Gibbs has seen them more than once: The people who come to her agency looking to avoid going on welfare not only have a problem making money, they have a problem managing it.
She's often felt they need more than a handout. They need education. That's why ACT and Provident Bank have teamed up to offer free budgeting classes to ACT clients, welfare recipients, former welfare recipients and anyone who has trouble managing money. "Moving people from welfare to work has to include some help in taking control of their own finances," said the director of ACT Inc., a private agency contracting with the Hamilton County Department of Human Services to help keep people off welfare.
"If I am going to pay $900 in rent arrearage, I want to make sure they know how it happened, why it happened and how they can make sure it doesn't happen again."
The classes will kick off Wednesday and will be held once a month for a year. Some ACT clients will be ordered to take the classes if they want help paying bills, fixing cars, paying for child care or for any of the other problems that might send someone spiraling toward the welfare rolls.
But the organizers hope many others will come voluntarily. "These things are supposed to come from within the home when you are young; and if you don't get these things from within the home, you have to get them from someplace," said Charlotte Kemper, assistant vice president and associate director of community development at Provident Bank.
Other social service agencies, such as Family Service of the Cincinnati Area, have provided money management classes for some time.
Provident Bank's classes will involve pulling participant's credit reports and showing them how to clean up bad credit ratings, teaching how to use automated bank cards, and providing a free checking account and helping them manage it.
A possible benefit for Provident Bank: Those who sign up for the classes might become customers.
Jerry L. Grace, senior vice president and treasurer at Provident Bank, said many of the people who will benefit from the classes have traditionally avoided banks.
"Banks are something they don't trust because no one has ever explained what is going on," he said. "We're going to take the apprehension out of banking for them."
