Mission and Vision
The Financial Clinic (“the Clinic”) builds working poor families and individuals’ financial security by addressing their immediate financial challenges and helping them create trajectories for long-term goals and financial mobility.
The Clinic’s vision is that of systemic change by leveraging its on-the-ground lessons to creating system-level solutions that impact our customers at scale. The Clinic works towards this mission via a combination of services that include: immediate access to tax preparation and financial education workshops; “on-ramp” services around budgeting, improving banking engagement; legal assistance with bankruptcy, foreclosure and consumer law; and, long-term, one-on-one financial coaching aimed at identifying goals and developing habits to achieve them.
In addition to direct service provision, the Clinic has three major areas of work. Our Business-2-Business consulting services are designed to build capacity in organizations that work with similar populations, both at the local and national level, for the purpose of better positioning them to achieve their mission and work toward their vision.
The Clinic's Research and Policy work partners with organizations like Appleseed to explore potential policy change impacting cash earners in New York state. The Financial Clinic Fellowship is an emerging program with a low-cost, high-impact scale and social innovation model for the delivery of financial coaching services at an exponential rate.
THE CLINIC FRAMES FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT SERVICES WITH FIVE DISTINCT PRACTICE AREAS
- ASSETS: We build our customers' assets by creating and implementing plans for consistent savings. We increase their income by accessing employer- and public-funded supports
- BANKING: We connect customers to low-cost, mainstream banking services and help lower their use of expensive fringe financial services.
- CREDIT: We boost customers' credit scores by addressing negative information on credit reports and building a solid credit history.
- DEBT: We help customers reduce their debts through financial planning and advocacy with creditors.
- TAXES: We ensure that customers receive their tax credits and help them plan to save portion of their refunds for long-term goals.
Working toward goals in all five of these practices areas ensures that we do more than affix temporary band-aids. Instead, the Clinic's purpose is to improve our customers' financial security over the long term by helping them create opportunities for financial mobility.
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