In late 2019, Danielle Morris found herself newly divorced after 30 years.
Morris had not taken part in financial matters during her marriage, so she was overwhelmed.
She didn’t know how to pay bills and had a Best Buy credit card account with $4,000 on it at 30% interest. She was driving an old car with 400,000 miles and the refrigerator in her West Akron house had just broken.
“I was literally scared,” recalls Morris. “We were using our front porch as the refrigerator because it was in the winter time. I had to figure out something only because I needed help and didn’t know what to do.”
She found her answer on a bright-orange insert in her Akron water bill. It was a postcard about the Financial Empowerment Center, a partnership between the city of Akron and United Way of Summit and Medina counties. The center provides free financial counseling to anyone who works or lives in Summit or Medina counties, with no eligibility requirements.
It took a few months for Morris, who now works three jobs as a photographer, videographer and editor, to get around to calling. She was doing her bills when she found the insert again.
“I said, ‘What can it hurt by calling that number?’ ”
Two years later, Morris is so thankful she made that phone call. With the help of her financial counselor, Tory Longwell, Morris was able to reduce her debt, pay her bills on time, buy a brand new 2020 Toyota Highlander and get more comfortable with her finances, including building a savings for emergencies.
Recently, one of the bathrooms flooded in her house, which she got in the divorce and which has no mortgage. She is currently having restoration work done, but before going to the Financial Empowerment Center, she would have worried whether she had the $500 to pay for the deductible.
“I would have been a mess; I wouldn’t have known who to call. Even with insurance. I didn’t have any hands-on knowledge [about how insurance worked],” Morris said.
Morris admits it took her awhile to call the center since she wasn’t sure if it was a scam.
What is the Financial Empowerment Center?
That’s a valid worry for people, said Angela Lowery, associate vice president for financial stability for United Way of Summit and Medina counties.
The center launched in 2018 as a partnership between the city of Akron and United Way. United Way owns the main hub building in the Kenmore area of Akron and employs the six certified financial counselors. The center is funded through a variety of private and public funding, said Lowery, who oversees the center.
“One of the beautiful things about it is anybody who lives or works in Summit or Medina county is eligible to receive services. There are no income restrictions,” she said.
“Access to high-quality financial advice should be a public right,” Lowery said.
“Because the financial services space has been predatory and murky, the idea is the city or municipality backing it provides that trusted resource saying ‘this is for real,’ ” said Lowery.
The city of Akron can also provide the platform, such as water bill inserts, to communicate with potential clients, said Lowery.
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said, “Boasting free tax preparation services and financial counseling, the Financial Empowerment Center is a one-stop shop for Akronites looking to create a budget, reduce debt, and increase their credit score. I implore more folks to look into how the FEC can help put them on a better financial track”
How does it work?
Counseling is done one on one with clients, either in person at the Kenmore office or by phone or virtually. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most in-person operations, there were six locations, said Lowery. They are slowly working to relaunch others.
Counselors focus on five keys: budgeting, banking access, debt reduction, helping people increase savings goals, and improving or establishing credit.
“We always make the disclaimer that we’re not financial advisers,” said Lowery. “If folks are at the level of looking at investments or diversifying portfolios, that’s a great referral to a financial adviser.”
The counselors can help with debt management and can help negotiate settlements with creditors, said Lowery, but the center does offer debt management plans, where an entity may pay the total debt for a small fee and have the client pay back the entity. Counselors can also help with basic 529s or 401(k) plan questions.
Since launching in June 2018, the center has had more than 6,600 financial coaching sessions with 1,962 clients, said Lowery.
About 70% to 80% of the clients served fall into the low- to moderate-income category, said Lowery, however, “we work with higher individual incomes that have a ton of debt and don’t know what to do with that. We help them with strategizing. The reality is it’s low- to moderate-income” clients, she said.
All for free. There are no caps to the number of times a client can use the center. Longwill said she’s had some people for more than two years, who may just want an accountability partner after reaching initial goals.
To schedule an appointment, you can call 211 or 330-376-6660 or go to https://www.uwsummit.org/fec. People in other counties can also call to get a referral to an agency in their area.
Longwill’s background is in social work, so she and others can also help offer resources for housing, furniture or counseling needs as well. During tax time, the center offers free tax services.
Longwill said often the clients just need a little guidance or someone to talk things over with to gain that confidence.
Morris was eager to learn and asked for homework.
“That’s what I loved about her. I saw so much growth,” Longwill said.
‘We can do this’
Morris came the first time on Jan. 21, 2020. She and Longwill have now met 19 times, usually monthly in-person. Morris plans to continue.
“She thought she had less money than she did. When I built the budget and showed her how to allocate funds, I think she got that sigh of relief that ‘We can do this.’ ”
Morris had a car with 400,000 miles on it leaking emissions. She and her daughter had gotten ill from the carbon monoxide. They continued to drive it through the winter and until October 2020 — with the windows down — until Morris had enough for a hefty down payment. They also raised her credit score by 88 points over time.
Morris worries when she sees big bills coming up, so with the help of Longwill, she enrolled in the Tax Installment Plan through Summit County for payment of her property taxes. She pays a small fee, but is able to pay the property taxes in smaller increments.
She also became comfortable enough with her finances that she began paying ahead on her car insurance and paid extra on her car payments.
Along the way, there were other surprises that Morris could handle because she had a better handle on her finances, including a $500 deductible after a tree fell into the garage during a windstorm and a $2,000 bill to repair her back porch.
“It felt good to just be able to write the check and have the bill say ‘paid in full,’ ” said Morris.
The mother of two was also able to involve her younger daughter, who at the time was a high school senior, in her financial makeover.
“Even with her going off to school, she knows what she has and she knows where she needs to allocate what she has. It’s not just freedom of spending money,” said Morris.
Morris saved for a graduation party for her daughter and money for an overseas trip that was canceled by COVID-19. The money is set aside for her daughter, who is a freshman in college studying nursing.
Her car is more than half paid off and she wants to pay it off in two years.
Once Longwill helped Morris allocate where her alimony and income were going and once Morris saw it in front of her, “that actually helped me to grab ahold of it and start running with it.”
Morris is quick to tell female friends now that it is important to understand bills and finances.
She also keeps that orange insert advertising the Financial Empowerment Center on her prayer wall as a reminder of how far she’s come.
“All I can say is thank God that there is an organization that is out there to help people. It doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have anything. Just the fact that they’re there to help guide you towards the light.”
Financial tips
Here are 5 financial empowerment tips from the Financial Empowerment Center:
Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.
