Adjusting the Lens of Financial Wellness in the Miami-Dade Community

Financial Capability Month is coming up in April. During this time, organizations like Branches Inc. In Miami, Florida seek to educate and provide resources to people on topics involving credit, banking, savings, etc. Beyond programming, there are opportunities to connect with families who experience systemic gaps that have inhibited their progression in overall financial wellness and security. Branches Inc. serves the Miami-Dade, Florida community through a holistic scope to break the cycle of generational poverty. 

To learn more about how we can adjust the lens of financial wellness, we interviewed Karla Bachmann, the Vice President of Financial Wellness at Branches, Inc. Read More Here 

Hi, Karla. It's great to be with you today. Tell me a little bit about your role as the Vice President of Financial Wellness at Branches, Inc.  

Thank you for the invitation. I oversee all the financial wellness services that include free tax preparation services, one-on-one coaching, children and youth financial education and micro business development. In October, we officially launched the Miami-Dade Community ID, [a form of identification to help more residents access certain County services.] The issuance of Community IDs removes a lot of barriers to financial wellness, as we have seen among the Miami-Dade community. Additionally, [new] transportation solutions promote reliable transportation among our low- to moderate-income families. In a city like Miami, transportation determines the type of job you have, the type of food you have access to, and the type of educational opportunities that you can access. So, it's incredibly important for us to make sure that people have these bridges to financial wellness. I oversee the everyday operations, but mainly the development of new ideas that bridge the gap between existing programs and the needs of the community.  

My job is my vocation. In describing my work in depth, it may sound like a lot. But every day, I think it becomes more of a natural thing. I oversee initiatives to bring people from the community and develop them into junior coaches. One of the most important responsibilities I have is the development of talent through community partners. We welcome people with very little or no experience in financial coaching, train them, and guide them all the way to become coaches. We have successfully done this for four people and have three in the pipeline working toward becoming junior coaches. 

To further financial wellness, we must continue to look inwards and listen to the community tell us what they want and what they need.

From an organizational standpoint, how can we further financial wellness?  

It's interesting because I think that usually when I hear about furthering our mission or having higher impact, I immediately think about innovation and anything that is new or outwards. What has been proven successful to us has been more of a fold-in approach. We use a couple of techniques that we have trained people in our staff to develop, like human centered design, 2Gen approach, and an informed brain science approach. These techniques translate into a few sets of lenses for us to look at within our community. There are so many great programs and initiatives, yet sometimes there may be a disconnect in how we present these opportunities and what is being heard by the community. I would refer to this as a very humble approach to bridging that gap. A gap that was highlighted by the amount of money left on the table for PPP loans and the number of people closing their business because they couldn't make it. That is the gap that we are thriving in between, the need and the resource. Why are people not connected? Our folding approach allows us to have people from the community in these junior coach positions, telling us how they received the message of the services that we are putting out there, or why some of those do not work for them. In a few years of internal reflection and understanding, we are trying to do the right thing and understand why the solution is not simpler. To further financial wellness, we must continue to look inwards and listen to the community tell us what they want and what they need. And sometimes the solution may be things like a transportation solutions program or the Community ID program. Why? Let's say we talked about savings and joining a banking institution. If you do not have an ID, you can open the bank account but where are you supposed to save?  

For example, we were just helping families that were displaced, roughly 40 families, and over 120 people whose entire apartment building caught on fire. How many people had money saved in their apartment that lost everything, all their savings? These are the gaps that we feel need to be addressed. This is what Branches Inc. is working on.  

Which tools and resources have helped make your work a success?  

I would say data, data, data for people. It's hard to gather anecdotal information, but I think that we have become better at it. This is one of our most important tools. Human centered design and a culture of data are extremely important for us to know what to ask, how to listen, and how to capture information to develop good solutions for the problems that people have.  

Explain the significance of the 2Gen approach at Branches, Inc. What impact has this had on the families served in South Florida?  

The 2Gen approach was initially developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and passed on to the Aspen Institute. A few years back, I had the opportunity to work with Aspen and UnidosUS in developing the 2Gen for Latino families, so the name 2Gen prevails. For us in South Florida and for Latinos, it's more of a multi-Gen approach because our families do not necessarily include a mom, dad and children. Sometimes children are raised by grandparents, aunties, uncles, and we see that sometimes they are raised by neighbors who were able to bring the children here from other countries. So, this multi-generational approach is extremely important for two reasons. First, we believe that our best opportunity to create financial wellness is with children, who can learn about the financial system and how to be successful. Secondly, since finances affect every person in the family, you cannot just work with one member. This is a collective effort. Our approach to developing services is for the wellbeing of the whole family, but it does have a particular approach to the children's learning. I'm an immigrant, and when I came to this country, one of the first things that I realized is that we have the most complicated tax system in the world. Furthermore, one of the most implicative financial systems in the world based on credit, and these are not things you learn in school.  

So where are kids going to learn? If the parents don't know how to create assets, buy a house, buy a car, work on a good credit score, then these skills are not passed down to their children. If I do not get this information from mom or dad nor school, how do I get it? There is a particular attention on education and reading by third grade but at Branches we are layering that financial education from kindergarten onward. We must level the playing field for some of these children that do not have access to financial knowledge at home and at school.   

Last year, Florida Governor Ron Desantis signed SB 1054: Financial Literacy Instruction in Public Schools. What is the significance of this bill, why does policy regarding financial education matter?  

I believe that it is essential. Again, credit is complicated, the tax system is complicated, retirement benefits, and benefit cliffs are complicated. Everything that has to do with your money and your financial wellness is extremely complicated. This is something that you should be learning in school to be able to fully participate in the economy. While I am very happy to see these bills pass, there must be funding behind it. If you pass the law that this needs to be done, but you don't provide the school with the funding, then it can’t happen.   

Funding allows teachers to train and acquire the resources they need within their schools. Talking about money mistakes is kind of a taboo. Some of the teachers that we talked to, have stated that, “I don't even have it together. How am I going to be teaching that?” How would you know what you don't know, unless you learn by mistakes. Let’s say the bank closes a parent’s account for overdraft fees because they didn’t understand it, but now it’s easier because they have the understanding. A lot of people lose their bank accounts due to overdraft and other fees. So, the narrative that is formed for themselves and their children is “don't work with the banks, they're just going to steal your money.” Bad experiences foster lack of trust. As a result, they work their margins and spend a lot more money just to do things that we do every day. Instead of paying bills online, they rely on money orders and go to the corner stores. The time and effort and money spent on things that should be easy is incredible for the people that we serve.  

What are you looking forward to accomplishing this year?  

We've been collecting data for a long, long time to demystify some of the traditional pathways to financial wellness. This is the year where we are hoping to present some of the findings. We have gone on a different route and incorporated some fintech tools and other tools to help people. I think this year we're going to start seeing the numbers. For example, I believe credit is one of the most important things we can help people build. With credit building as a focus, we have acquired certified credit builders and train the trainers for personal and business credit. For the community, this has the potential to become one of our strongest offerings. Savings cost you money, but credit doesn’t. We have the tools and the knowledge to really invest heavily on credit building in the community and I'm really looking forward to that.  
 

To learn more about Branches Inc., visit their webpage here.  

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