Out and About: New credit building toolkit and certification program

In August, Consumer Action’s Audrey Perrott attended the Credit Builders Alliance’s (CBA) Credit as an Asset training, cohosted by Credit Builders Alliance and the National Asian American Coalition (NAAC). Both agencies are champions in the fight to provide mainstream financial services to low-income consumers.

CBA is no stranger to the asset building game. The agency provides non-profits with both the ability and the critical technical assistance to report loan data to credit reporting agencies and to pull low-cost client credit reports for the purposes of financial education, outcome tracking and underwriting.

CBA launched its new training institute website over the summer. With the launch of the site, CBA unveiled its Credit as an Asset master training program, a Credit Builders Toolkit, a Credit Building Consulting service and a CBA Members’ Corner. The aim of the CBA Training Institute is to help organizations move consumers from poverty to prosperity by delivering training taught by experienced credit practitioners and by helping staff of member organizations become credentialed in order to deliver trainings to the communities they serve.

CBA Deputy Director Sarah Chenven facilitated the Credit as an Asset training that Perrott attended. Perrott found that the training “included a good mix of lecture, interactive activities, sharing of best practices and a content-rich participant’s guide. Chenven did a stellar job of introducing the content and weaving the best practices of local CBA members into the training. She also allowed featured members to share vignettes about their asset building work with the larger group.”

The Credit as an Asset training is part of the CBA master training program, which includes two days on asset building and meeting facilitation, full access to CBA’s licensed curriculum, ongoing education, technical assistance, and updates on credit industry changes. For more information on hosting a Credit as an Asset training for your agency, contact [email protected].

Credit Builders Alliance is a national non-profit social enterprise dedicated to building the capacity of non-profits (CBA members) to help low- and moderate-income households build strong credit and other financial assets. CBA was created by and for non-profit members in response to a serious gap in the modern credit reporting system that locks millions of individuals with poor or thin credit files out of the mainstream financial system.

The NAAC is a HUD-approved housing counseling agency that focuses on sustainable homeownership and workforce, small business and economic development.