Navicore Solutions: Helping consumers in need through Money Management 1-2-3

Navicore Solutions, a national nonprofit providing credit counseling, housing counseling, budgeting and financial education to consumers in need, contacted Consumer Action in September to let us know about the benefits they’ve experienced using our Money Management 1-2-3 training modules. Consumer Action’s Money Management project helps instruct community-based organizations like Navicore on how to best help their clients build a strong financial foundation, achieve financial goals and plan a secure future.

Navicore Illinois relationship manager Janice Parker enthusiastically expressed her gratitude for the Money Management resources, writing: “Thank you for all the work Consumer Action does to support our industry staff. Programs like Money Management 1-2-3 not only help stretch the non-profit industry budget (time spent creating the curriculum, free materials, etc.), but also help the communities in which we live and work!” (Article continues below photo.)

Navicore Illinois relationship manager Janice Parker teaches a workshop.

While Navicore uses Consumer Action’s modules as freestanding educational courses, the organization mainly uses our publications to supplement its own in-house curriculum. For instance, Parker recently conducted a series of workshops that incorporated our Money Management materials at a number of Illinois community centers, like Helping Hands Resource Center (a local nonprofit agency providing personalized services to individuals and families in need).

After Parker contacted us, we asked her some in-depth questions about her organization and how it uses Consumer Action’s education materials.

To start, can you tell us who, exactly, your target audience is?

Typically, the consumers we serve are facing a financial crisis due to loss of employment, illness, change in marital status, over-extension of credit, or the loss of a family member. Seventy-five percent of the consumers that we counsel have incomes that are less than 80 percent of their respective area median income. 

Where are your offices located?

We operate 11 offices in 10 states nationwide. Our corporate headquarters is located in Manalapan, NJ, but we also have satellite offices in Dedham, MA; Owings Mills, MD; Farmington Hills, MI; Raleigh, NC; Dallas, TX; Roseville, MN; Henderson, NV; Peoria and Champaign, IL; and San Diego, CA.

You have quite a big presence nationally! So what specific materials are you using in your financial literacy program?

In addition to Money Management 1-2-3, we’ve used Consumer Action modules addressing the following topics: elder fraud, teens and money, and banking basics.

Your organization received a mini-grant from Consumers Action to conduct financial education. How is that working out?

In June 2010, we were awarded a $5,000 mini-grant to use Consumer Action’s MoneyWi$e curriculum [a comprehensive financial literacy training program that was created through a partnership with Capital One] as part of a larger life skills training program (which incorporated counseling services, education and guidance) for Family Promise of Monmouth County, New Jersey. The program has helped them improve services to area homeless families with children.

Then in October 2010, we were awarded another $5,000 mini-grant to provide financial education to Head Start staff and parents in Dallas, TX using the MoneyWi$e curriculum. The grant also enabled us to provide them with one-on-one counseling and group educational services on budgeting, credit report review and correction, and credit and savings management.

Finally, in May 2012, we were awarded an additional $7,500 mini-grant to again use the MoneyWi$e curriculum, this time to conduct a nine month financial literacy program for residents of Manna House, a New Jersey transitional housing facility for young, unemployed and under educated mothers dependent upon public assistance.

Have you attended our National Consumer Empowerment Conference? If yes, what did you gain from attending?

I did attend, and the knowledge and resources I got from the conference have allowed me to provide even more help to our clients by sharing information and tools that build financial empowerment. The conference equips community leaders and educators to initiate innovative outreach programs for the populations we serve. The materials and knowledge shared at the conference not only allow us to educate our clients, but to connect them to other resources and new pathways to financial empowerment.

(Editor's Note: Admission to Consumer Action’s national consumer empowerment conference is by invitation only.)

Navicore Solutions is a national nonprofit organization that strengthens the well-being of individuals and families through education, guidance, advocacy and support. The organization was founded in 1991 and provides a wide range of services, including: personal financial counseling; financial education; debt management; pre and post bankruptcy counseling and education; student loan counseling; and comprehensive housing counseling (pre-purchase, rental, default/foreclosure and HECM counseling). The agency is also a member organization of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) and accredited by the Council of Accreditation. In addition, the agency is a HUD-approved Housing Counseling National Intermediary. Click here to learn more about Navicore Solutions.