The North Minneapolis-based Black Women's Wealth Alliance (BWWA) and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota are working together on an "innovative partnership to help strengthen housing stability among black women" over the next year.
The partners will work with black women who have experienced or are experiencing housing instability by to promoting positive economic, social and health outcomes for women and children in their care by strengthening the capacity of black female caregivers through empowerment training and wealth building skills, in partnership with the BWWA.
The pilot program will be guided by Brittany Lewis of of CURA.
It will include educational training and access to healing and financial services that each participant needs to gain control over finances and housing stability. There also will be a focus on technical-skill development and research-informed solutions that work for each woman and help reduce housing disparities.
Each participant will complete a health, financial, and housing assessment that will help them create individual plans of action, partly through one-on-one counseling. And each participant will be paid for eight hours each month to help inform a research-based agenda for the future.
The several-year-old BWWA seeks to advance the black community by working with women on wealth-building education, strategies and entrepreneurship.
I recently wrote about Tonia Brinston, a veteran financial counselor, who years ago turned around her financial life as a single mom, and is a volunteer advisor with BWWA: