The mission of Emanuel CDC is to strengthen low-income families and individuals, by providing services that are portable, adaptable and easily taken into the community for the purpose of enhancing the health, economic security, and overall quality of life of targeted vulnerable populations.

Description:
The goal of the Emanuel CDC Financial Literacy Resource Center is to assist low-income individuals and families to acquire skills for changing financial behaviors. The Financial Literacy Resource Center accomplishes this by applying the TTM of change in the following manner:

1. Sponsoring free financial education classes at easily accessible sites (Counterconditioning).
2. Providing free financial mentoring services. Volunteer financial professionals work one-on-one with clients for a three to six month period, assisting those clients with the development of individual financial action plans. An individual action plan may focus on credit restoration, debt consolidation, budgeting and savings goals, or other financial management concerns (Helping relationship, Self-reevaluation, Self-liberation).
3. Providing free tax preparation assistance to assist low-income clients with accessing benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit (Dramatic relief).
4. Processing Individual Tax Identity Number applications as an IRS Acceptance Agent site (Helping relationship).
5. Co-sponsoring free financial literacy libraries which provide educational materials and resources to help low-income people learn how to manage their finances (Consciousness-raising).
6. Creating an Individual Asset Development Program (Contingency management).



History:
For the past 15 to 20 years, Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church has been at the forefront of developing faith based initiatives that improve the quality of life for those most disenfranchised and vulnerable in the greater New Brunswick community. During the 1980’s, the pastor and members of this small congregation, nestled in the heart of downtown New Brunswick, fed people on the streets and advocated for the homeless to be housed. The fruits of their labors were instrumental to the founding of two thriving non-profit faith based organizations, Elijah’s Promise and Middlesex Interfaith Partners with the Homeless which runs Amandla Crossing and Imani Park transitional housing programs.
Emanuel Community Development Corporation (ECDC), another not for profit organization, grew out of the rich history of the socially minded work of the Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church. Over the past three years Emanuel Community Development Corporation has built a financial education program that serves low-income residents of Middlesex and Somerset Counties.



Contact people:


Patty Fox, Executive Director, (phone), (email) William Johnson, Program Coordinator, (phone), (email) Jeff Eaton, Board President, (phone)


Office fax number: (732) 246-3355

Address:


1-3 Kirkpatrick Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.emanuelcdc.org

Last updated on February 5, 2009