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Alameda County Prosperity Project

 

Lead Organization: Alameda County Public Health Department

Key Partners: Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, The Urban Strategies Council and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

Project Location: Oakland, Calif.

Contact: Alexandra Desautels, health equity policy manager, Alameda County Public Health Department, alexandra.desautels@acgov.org 

Project Description: 

Many people of color in Alameda County do not have access to opportunities to earn money and ensure their financial security, which affects their people’s to get health insurance, pay for preventive and acute medical care, and afford healthy and safe places to live. Too many Alameda County residents rely on predatory financial services to cash their paychecks, pay their bills, and lack a safe place to keep their money, redirecting precious resources away from meeting basic needs to paying off very high-interest loans. 

The Alameda County Public Health Department and its partners—the Urban Strategies Council and other Oakland community organizations—will use their grant funding to advocate to make consumer-focused banking services available to residents of low-income neighborhoods and to educate the people in these communities about why it is more cost-effective and secure to maintain bank accounts instead of paying transaction fees for check cashing or bill payment services. 

Specifically, the health department and its partners will work towards the adoption of a policy that will use local government deposits as incentives for appropriate financial institutions to expand services into previously underserved neighborhoods. In addition, the health department will train community and social service agencies, including their own program staff, to integrate easy-to-understand information about fair financial products and sound banking practices into their existing community outreach and education programs, as well as provide opportunities to get involved in making policy changes to expand access to fair financial products. 

Matching funds for this grant will be provided by Alameda County Health Care Services Agency and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.