Council approves partnership with Consumer Credit Counseling for financial preparedness trainings for nonprofits

The City Council authorized an agreement with Consumer Credit Counseling Services to provide financial preparedness training to nonprofits that serve low-income residents, including material on saving, budgeting and how to access post‑disaster financial resources.

The administration told the committee the planned trainings will address disasters defined under the city's grant directive, including flooding, significant winter storms and technological incidents such as prolonged power outages. "So in terms of the type of disasters we're talking about, these are things, per the directive of the grama natural disaster. So it could be, flooding, it could be significant winter storms, ice storms... technological disasters, if we were to have some kind of power grid go down," Emergency Manager Fred said.

Officials said nonprofits that expressed interest are on a preliminary list but have not been finalized. The city expects to begin sessions in November and to run one to two trainings per month for about ten months. Consumer Credit will design and administer a survey to staff who attend; the city is exploring whether those staff can then survey clients who receive follow‑up education.

Council members pressed for selection timing, evaluation responsibility and confirmation of start dates. Director Jones told the committee the list of interested nonprofits is not finalized and that selections are expected by November. The committee voted to approve the agreement during the meeting and the motion carried.

The administration will provide the finalized nonprofit list, survey instruments and an evaluation plan as follow-up. The agreement was authorized as a one‑year engagement to allow evaluation of vendor performance and program value before longer commitments are made.