Innovation Ecosystem

From the ground up, not trickle down

New financial center in the Elmwood neighborhood of Providence provides financial literacy training to help residents start new businesses and buy new homes, the rock of a resilient economy

Photo by Richard Asinof

Juan Lantigua, left, the owner of The Cake House, a new bakery in Olneyville, with Jennifer Hawkins, the executive director of ONE Neighborhood Builders, at the open house for the new Elmwood Financial Center on Broad Street in Providence. With One Neighborhood Builders help, Lantigua was able to secure a loan to finance his bakery.

By Richard Asinof
Posted 3/26/18
For residents in hardscrabble neighborhoods such as Elmwood and Olneyville, One Neighborhood Builders has become the catalyst in creating sustainable, resilient communities, providing the mentoring to help residents attain their personal financial goals.
What is the value of healthy, safe, affordable homes in growing the Rhode Island economy? What is the measurable relationship between public health, health equity, and healthy, safe affordable housing? Where will all the new talent attracted to fill the new jobs created as part of new companies locating in Providence live? How is ONE Neighborhood Builders redefining what it means to be an “engaged” community? How will the banks participating in the Elmwood Financial Center market their involvement?
On Sept. 20, 2018, the R.I. Department of Health will host its third “Health Equity Summit,” focused on building healthy and resilient communities, at the Rhode Island Convention Center. The proceedings will include a renewed call to action through cross-sector collaborations and networking to advance health equity.
As witnessed by the decision of The Rhode Island Foundation to invest $2.8 million in the latest round of grants through its Fund for a Healthy Rhode Island, the concept of health equity in community building is gaining traction in being recognized as part of the state’s innovation ecosystem.
“We know that factors outside of the clinical setting must be addressed to achieve optimal health outcomes,” said Larry Warner, who oversees health sector grant making at the foundation. The goal is to improve the social and environmental determinants of health, Warner continued – “the context in which we live, work, play and learn.”

PROVIDENCE – On Friday afternoon, March 23, shortly after President Donald Trump signed the massive $1.3 trillion federal spending bill into law after first threatening to veto it and shut down the government, a different kind of financial literacy event took place: a community open house for the new Elmwood Financial Center at 770 Broad St., a storefront location offering walk-in homebuyer education classes and financial counseling sessions, promoting the kind of ground-up, neighborhood commercial activity by residents that underpins economic resiliency and prosperity.

For sure, the federal spending bill received most if not all the headlines and news media coverage in Rhode Island, particularly after the President attempted to turn the event into a kind of TV reality show: would he or wouldn’t he sign the bill.

And, of course, the political pundits were still busy chewing [or gnashing their teeth] on the latest job reports for Rhode Island, announced the day before on March 22 and promoted by Gov. Gina Raimondo, which showed that the state had added 1,200 jobs in February and some 6,300 jobs during the last 12 months. A week earlier, Business Insider had ranked Rhode Island as having the nation’s ninth best economy, up from its ranking of 33rd the year before.

In an election year, economic data is often viewed through the same window one is accustomed to looking at the world.

Ground up, not trickle down
The open house for the Elmwood Financial Center, a project by ONE Neighborhood Builders, a community development corporation, in partnership with the Bank of Newport, the Washington Trust Company, Bank RI, and Coastway Community Bank, was a different kind of reality show, one based upon the ground-up vibrancy of commerce at the local level.

Even though the Elmwood Financial Center had had an official “soft” opening on Feb. 1, the open house was jam packed with folks from the neighborhood. More than 45 people signed up for financial literacy sessions, including advice on home buying.

Jennifer Hawkins, the executive director of ONE Neighborhood Builders, stood on the sill of one of the storefront windows to thank everyone for coming to the crowded open house – and praised her team for organizing the event.

The location, she explained, was a “perfect” one to serve the Elmwood community, with its tall windows, near a busy intersection, and the proximity of more than 200 apartments in the neighborhood which her community development corporation had helped to build and refurbish.

“It meant that we would get a lot of walk-in traffic,” Hawkins explained, saying that was exactly what they were looking for in Elmwood for a full-service drop-in financial services center.

“Not everyone is prepared for home ownership,” Hawkins said. Some people, she continued, “[they need help with] credit counseling, budgeting, entrepreneurship, home improvement loans, car loans. So, for all these financial services, we are now prepared to meet people where they are at.”

Hawkins again thanked the four banks for their willingness to serve as a network of committed partners, offering in-kind personnel to staff the financial center, enabling residents to meet with personal lenders, brokers and bankers, providing one-on-one bilingual service.

The mission
One Neighborhood Builders recently revamped its strategic plan, and Hawkins shared with those attending the open house the organization’s mission:

To promote equity, public health and community safety in Providence’s neighborhoods.

To accomplish its mission, ONE Neighborhood Builders makes strategic investments in real estate development to increase the availability of affordable homes, spur economic development and protect natural resources.

Further, ONE Neighborhood Builders encourages engagement of residents in community-based organizations to build trust in collective problem solving.

Finally, Hawkins explained, the third leg of the organization’s strategic plan was to encourage people in the neighborhood to achieve the attainment of their personal financial goals – and that was what the Elmwood Financial Center was all about.

Hawkins then recognized Juan Lantigua, who that very day had been approved for a loan to open up his own bakery, called The Family Cake.

“We have been working with Juan for a few months [to help him obtain the loan],” Hawkins said. “He is going to be a tenant in a storefront location in Olneyville, and he made this cake [to help celebrate the open house],” pointing to a large cake on the table, as everyone broke into sustained applause.

“I know that you’ll be successful,” Hawkins told Lantigua, “because everyone here is going to order a cake from your new business.”

A snapshot in time
Later, at the request of ConvergenceRI, Hawkins posed with Lantigua, with Lantigua holding his cake, beaming.

In the old days, it might have been called a Kodak moment. In today’s world, it was definitely a Facebook post to share, capturing the entrepreneurial spirit in Rhode Island that is occurring at the neighborhood level, mentored by the team at ONE Neighborhood Builders, investing in the innovation ecosystem from the ground up.

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