The Allstate Foundation awarded the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence (KCADV) $50,000 to support its nationally recognized Economic Empowerment Project this year.
The Allstate Foundation and KCADV have partnered for 13 years to break the cycle of domestic violence through economic empowerment. Since 2015, the foundation has made grants of close to $1.2 million to KCADV and its member programs.
Advocates at Women’s Crisis Center Northern Kentucky (WCCNKY) worked with Allstate Agent Christopher Whitehead to provide financial education classes to survivors last month.
The Allstate Foundation’s funding also supports individual case management, financial education classes, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), and micro loans throughout Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.
Funding will also support KCADV’s innovative partnership with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System’s (KCTCS) 16 community colleges whose transitional students (welfare recipients) are now eligible for financial empowerment services since 2014.
Last year, 1,820 individuals were served with financial empowerment services, using The Allstate Foundation’s Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum. Of these, 1,622 people created a financial plan or budget, 136 opened bank accounts, 164 are working to improve credit scores, and 540 met financial goals.
Between KCADV’s reach to domestic violence programs and community colleges, more than 2,300 survivors of domestic violence in Kentucky will receive economic empowerment services this year. Most survivors are single mothers earning less than $15,000 per year. Seventy-two percent of KCTCS transitional students report being survivors of domestic violence.
Participants benefit from financial education classes and counseling and can open IDAs (special matched savings accounts).
Participants who maximize one program finish with $5000 to spend–$1000 of their own savings and $4000 in matching funds–on an asset of their choosing: higher education expenses, a home purchase, or funds to start or expand a small business. The savings of participants who save for a car are matched one-to-one for a total of up to $4,000.
KCADV’s economic empowerment program has helped participants purchase assets that will help them become self-sufficient: 186 have purchased homes; 56 have started small businesses; 322 have pursued a post-secondary degree; and 145 have purchased their own cars.
The Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence is a coalition of the Commonwealth’s 15 publicly funded domestic violence programs.
Established in 1952, The Allstate Foundation is an independent, charitable organization made possible by the subsidiaries of the Allstate Corporation. Allstate and The Allstate Foundation sponsor community initiatives to promote “safe and vital communities”; “tolerance, inclusion and diversity”; and “economic empowerment”. For additional information click here.
The Allstate Foundation
