Press Release - October 2008
Bienestar receives $2500 grant from Bank of America to support Financial Literacy Program

Bienestar is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant in the amount of $2,500 from Bank of America to support its new Financial Literacy Program for farmworkers and low-income working families residing in Bienestar’s affordable apartment properties in Washington and Columbia counties.

“We will use this generous gift from Bank of America to implement a new three-year Financial Literacy Program for our residents”, said Karen Shawcross, Executive Director of Bienestar.  “Last November we conducted a door-to-door survey of the residents of our 10 properties, and 91% of them identified information about money management as a critical need.  We know that many of them are victims of financial predators, so we have designed a new financial literacy program model that will take people through three years of learning from the basics of budgeting and banking into homeownership and micro enterprise.  A key component of the program will be an IDA program (Individual Development Account) - a matched savings account that will help our residents build assets.”

Maria Moreno, Bienestar program coordinator, will begin the new program this month for adults and youth living in Bienestar apartments.  The adult program will begin with the very basics of money management – budgeting, opening a bank account, obtaining credit.  The program will combine group classroom learning, self-paced PC-based learning, and video workshops. Materials to be used include the TV411-Bank of America curriculum developed to help educate families about the dangers of financial predators.  A new financial literacy program for youth also begins this month at Bienestar.  The curriculum to be used for young people in grades 1-6 is Financial Fitness for Life, a program developed by the National Council on Economic Education through a grant from Bank of America Foundation.

“We are so pleased to have the support of Bank of America”, adds Gracie Garcia, Bienestar’s Program Services Manager, “especially since most of our families are Hispanic and the materials that Bank of America has helped to create are available in Spanish.”

Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services.  The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving more than 59 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 6,100 retail banking offices, more than 18,500 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 25 million active users.  Bank of America offers industry leading support to more than 4 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services.  The company serves clients in more than 150 countries and has relationships with 99% of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83% of the Fortune Global 500.  Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE:BAC) is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

About Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy

Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, Bank of America will embark in 2009 on a new, ten-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their neighborhoods.  Funded by Bank of America, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation gave more than $200 million in 2007, making the bank the most generous financial institution in the world and the second largest donor of all U.S. corporations in cash contributions.  Bank of America approaches giving through a national strategy called “neighborhood excellence” under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities.  Through Team Bank of America, bank associate volunteers contributed more than 650,000 hours in 2007 to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide.  For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit www.bankofamerica.com/foundation.

About Bienestar

For twenty-seven years Bienestar (formerly Housing Development Corporation of Northwest Oregon) has been providing affordable housing and resident services for farmworkers and working poor families in Washington and Columbia counties in Oregon.  Bienestar currently operates ten apartment properties with 458 units in Aloha, Hillsboro, Cornelius, Forest Grove and Scappoose.  Resident services include educational and supportive services for youth and adults.  United Way of the Columbia-Willamette named Bienestar the 2008 Community Partner of the Year. Bienestar’s mission is to build housing, hope and futures for the well-being of working families.  For more information, please visit www.bienestar-or.org.

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