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By Lonny Shavelson

The ̽����ѡ in Oakland has joined forces with the City of Fremont and the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund to offer a financial counseling call line for all Alameda County residents.

The call line, which became operational in November, is being offered in conjunction with Cities for Financial Empowerment, a national initiative that began in 2014 with $8 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The nonprofit corporation trains financial counselors to work with families struggling with poverty, debt, housing insecurity and more. The ̽����ѡ in Oakland and the City of Fremont have trained Financial Navigators to take calls from Alameda County residents facing critical economic hardships, offering on-call help in English, Spanish, Arabic and Dari.

“There are lots of people hurting who need help,” said Mitchell Margolis, Economic Empowerment Manager at ̽����ѡ’s Oakland office, and one of the first to be trained there as a Financial Navigator. “For a long time, we’ve wanted to increase ̽����ѡ’s reach and scope. Our skills can help others who are not refugees and asylees.”

Under the new ̽����ѡ Oakland program, any Alameda County resident can for a phone consultation with a Financial Navigator. While that online form is available in English and Spanish, the phone consultations are provided in Arabic and Dari as well. During an approximately 30-minute phone call, the clients are guided through questions about their financial and social needs. For instance, they could discuss banking access, rental assistance, utility bills, evictions, unemployment claims or job training among other topics.  At the end of the consultation, the client receives referrals to appropriate financial and social service agencies. If the session does not cover all the beneficiary’s issues, the client can call again for another session.

Financial Navigators is one of many similar initiatives funded by Cities for Financial Empowerment nationwide. The CFE Fund has supplied $43 million throughout the U.S. to cities and partner organizations like the ̽����ѡ, receiving additional funding from foundations for banks such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase. While clients don’t get direct cash from this initiative, the counseling and referrals to social services have reduced their debt by $94 million, while increasing savings by $9 million.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is not just an unprecedented public health crisis,” said Patricia E. Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies. “It’s also an unprecedented economic crisis, with many questioning how they’re going to provide the next meal for their families.”

So, what’s in it for the ̽����ѡ to provide financial advice to any Alameda County resident, not only refugees and asylees? Margolis acknowledged that this is not in the traditional ̽����ѡ realm. However, the organization lives in a wider community, with many in need of aid who aren’t its customary clients.

“Some people who call in may turn out to be ̽����ѡ eligible,” Margolis noted. “So this contact will bring them in as ̽����ѡ clients, while using our skills to help others on a broader scale.”

Financial Navigators in Alameda County already have already provided nearly 60 sessions since the program began and have provided advice on more than 147 topics to address those needs. Margolis recently logged in and found seven new applications for financial advice and referrals within a single day, linking ̽����ѡ Oakland to a national effort by a multitude of organizations that has now reached 80,000 people in need.