PACE Teams with The Aspen Institute and Citi Foundation

PACE announced today the launch of a new program that will provide financial coaching and education, along with access to a secured credit card, to the Los Angeles-area microentrepreneurs whose credit profiles need strengthening to qualify for business financing.  The program is part of the Asset Building Through Credit pilot program, a research effort by The Aspen Institute that will study a multi-dimensional approach for building credit and financial opportunities for aspiring low-income entrepreneurs in five markets nationwide.

The overall study is funded by a $750,000 grant from the Citi Foundation to the Aspen Institute’s FIELD program, which is making grants to five nonprofit microenterprise organizations including PACE to implement the credit-building pilot program.

The initiative is based on a successful program led by Justine Petersen, a St. Louis-based microlender that has been offering secured cards to its microenterprise clients for almost two years. Citi Microfinance has collaborated with the organization to develop its credit building model and technology platform.  Justine Petersen will play a key role in the Aspen Institute’s pilot project by advising PACE and the other participating nonprofits on how to use secured cards as a financial coaching and credit building tool.

All five of the local partners participating in this pilot project have longstanding experience in working with entrepreneurs and in providing financial education and credit-building services to low-income individuals.  In addition to PACE, they include: Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Inc. and Central Vermont Community Action (Vermont); Latino Economic Development Corporation (District of Columbia); Mission Economic Development Agency (California); and Women’s Brooklyn Enterprise Center (New York). VIEW FULL ARTICLE.