Our Red Hook Community Justice Center hosted its first workshop series to help residents build their financial literacy skills.
HEADER PHOTO: Judge Sharen Hudson stands with graduates of the Red Hook Community Justice Center's first financial empowerment workshop series.
Economic justice got a boost in Brooklyn as our Red Hook Community Justice Center hosted its very first financial empowerment workshop series to help residents learn strategies to manage money, tackle debt, and achieve their financial goals.
Over the course of four months, 59 residents met with our Red Hook team to develop their financial literacy skills. Building on the Red Hook Community Justice Center’s long-standing economic empowerment work supported by Santander Bank, N.A., the workshop grew out of a unique partnership with the Food Bank for New York City’s “Food and Finance” training program.
“From the beginning, I was happy to see so many Red Hook residents sign up with interest in this series,” said Danielle Hawkins, our senior case manager who facilitated the workshops. “Then, as the classes progressed, it was even more exciting to see participants begin to realize that simple, small changes in our relationship with money can have a great impact on our lives.”
The series—which walked residents through addressing debt, creating a household budget, understanding credit scores, and setting short- and long-term financial goals—goes to the heart of the Community Justice Center’s mission: setting residents and their families up for stronger, more stable futures. With support from the Food Bank for New York City, Hawkins and her team also provided free tax preparation services throughout the spring, helping 165 Red Hook families maximize their tax refunds and, if needed, catch up on last year’s filings.
One Red Hook resident, Lynette Daniely, joined the workshop series after hearing about the opportunity from a neighbor. “I appreciated the time together at the Justice Center to learn and reflect on my finances,” Daniely said. “I took away that it's not a one-time effort to improve your finances—you have to keep working at it.” Residents who completed all six workshops received a budget planner notebook and a gift card to support their savings plans and future goals.
Judge Sharen Hudson, who meets with residents every day as she presides over the Red Hook Community Justice Center, also volunteered her time to join several of the sessions. “It was delightful to see the participants’ thoughtful engagement and enthusiasm,” said Judge Hudson. “It was an excellent program with many valuable financial insights.”
Even low-cost interventions to build financial literacy have tremendous payoffs, preventing pile-ups of debt that bring many tenants to housing court and potentially put them in danger of eviction. “Too often we see tenants in eviction court for rent payment issues where early advice and counseling could have helped them avoid the risk of displacement from their neighborhood,” said Ross Joy, our citywide director of housing justice. The support of Santander Bank, N.A. has been crucial to our Red Hook team’s efforts to prevent evictions and keep families in their homes. It also helps bring more resources to the community, like free organizing folders for people who visit the Community Justice Center to sort important housing and financial documents.
“Sitting down, listening, and getting paperwork organized is an easy first step to begin addressing a debt issue,” Joy added. “Our partnership with Santander Bank, N.A. opened the door for us to think creatively as a court and as a non-profit about the material support and capacity we provide when a family’s kitchen table finances are at stake.”
The initiative is now becoming a model in other neighborhoods in New York City where residents face similar challenges. Investing in education and resources to foster financial literacy can keep people in their homes and bring stability to families. And it’s a crucial step towards economic justice.