Independent Banker - May 2019 - 69

Trailblazer
Planting the seeds
of financial success
Through workshops with residents of
Washington, D.C., correctional facilities,
Industrial Bank is building the confidence
of incarcerated people to make informed
financial decisions. By Eric Best
he keyword of Industrial Bank's Footprints
to Your Financial Future Campaign is " your. "
" Because if you're reading our mission statement,
we're here to serve you. We're here to serve
every member of our community, " says Melanee
Woodard, an assistant vice president and marketing
manager at the $433 million-asset, African
American- and
family-owned
community
bank in Washington,
D.C.
Woodard and
other Industrial
Bank staff say
the program adName:
Industrial
Bank
Assets: $433 million
Location:
Washington, D.C.
dresses a " very serious crisis " their community
is facing: a lack of financial literacy and financial
empowerment among D.C.'s incarcerated population.
Launched in 2018, the series of workshops
for people housed in D.C. Department of Corrections
(DC DOC) facilities is designed to forge a
human connection to the community bank and
the wider financial system.
" We thought it would be a great idea to bring
formal financial literacy inside the prison system
so they can prepare for when they return to their
communities, " says B. Doyle Mitchell Jr., Industrial
Bank's president and CEO, who is a regular
speaker at the Footprints to Your Financial Future
program's graduation ceremonies.
The community bank started with two classes,
or financial literacy workshops, with residents
T
from minimum- to maximum-security facilities
of the DC DOC, whose population consists of
roughly 90 percent African Americans. Roughly
half of the incarcerated population is between the
ages of 21 and 41. So far, dozens of people have
graduated from the program.
Over several weeks, participants learn topics
like banking basics, how to save and how to understand
credit. Industrial Bank also brings in its
own experts and those from partner organizations
to teach more advanced financial lessons on
life insurance, investing and entrepreneurship,
as well as general skills like communication.
Money skills for a better life
Clinique Chapman, a program manager and
forensic social worker and supervisor with the
DC DOC, says many of these topics, such as budgeting,
have been useful for participants even
while incarcerated. Other topics, such as managing
and improving credit, are important for them
to understand because it can affect their ability to
find a job when they return home.
Quick stat
21-41
Age range of
roughly half the
incarcerated
population of the
D.C. Department
of Corrections
Source: D.C. Department
of Corrections
The workshops have already better equipped
graduates to make financial decisions in their
everyday lives. " We've seen those who've taken
these courses, then go home and actually make
that connection, " Chapman says. " Being that
they're a community bank, [Industrial Bank] has
been very helpful, because it's more of a one-onone
service when they walk into the branch. "
Jacquie McSears Boles, a senior vice president
and director of retail banking at Industrial
Bank, says many of the workshop participants are
practicing these skills for the first time, whether
it's because they've been incarcerated since they
were young, because they're intimidated by the
banking system or because they've faced other
challenges in life. Without these financial skills,
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Independent Banker - May 2019

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