How New Growth's Credit Building Helps Our Local Rural Communites

I live in a small town and in a typical small-town neighborhood. Like many small towns neighborhoods streets vary in the quality of homes on each street. Some streets have big, established trees and neat two-story middle-class homes with two car garages and large back yards. Others have smaller ranch homes-some immaculate and others with year-round“decorations”. One street has two blocks of trailer homes that appear they were randomly tossed on the lot. Each home has its address spray painted in black in the vicinity of the door.

When I whiz through the neighborhood on my recumbent trike,I can’t help but think about economy, class, and opportunity. Where does everyone work? How much do they make? How many jobs do they have? Can they save for retirement? Do they have enough to eat? Will they take a vacation this year? Are their kids afforded opportunities to meet their definition of success? What is their educational level? Have they achieved any of their dreams?

Invariably, I dream a little. I think of what a 750-creditscore neighborhood would look like. Rural towns like mine where opportunity is abundant, with enough jobs that pay enough for a solid living and decent retirement to go around. Places where everyone has access to financial education and everyone feels secure - enough to eat, enough for a rainy day, access to healthcare.

We can’t have it all, but anyone, regardless of income-can have a good credit score which enables access to capital and interest rates that don’t break the bank. This is just one of the myriad reasons that I believe in New Growth’s credit building work so much. New Growth offers free workshops teaching people about credit scores. It teaches what are credit scores, how they work, and how with nominal investment and some hard work anybody can have a great credit score. We offer one on one counseling helping individuals to create and stick to a credit action plan. We offer small credit building loans combined with a secure credit card that help people to build positive credit.

These things can help us create 750 credit score neighborhoods. Neighborhoods where everybody has what they need to access a good life. Thriving rural communities where community wealth is abundant and distributed to all.

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