Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up. It's way up at Angela.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, I'm here with my Wealth Wednesday partners, Stacy Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Everybody.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Yes, we are really excited to have Vivian Cox from
the Essex County Urban League with us today, the president
and CEO President and CEO of s Is County Urban League.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yes, Vivian Coxphasier, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I want people to understand exactly what the Urban League does,
because I think I've met a lot of people from
different cities, you know, from the Urban League, but I
want to I want to understand for people listening the
type of services that are provided.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Sure, so every urban league sort of response to needs
in its own communities, so it may be different, but
in Essex County we're located in Newark. Our main services
range from infant and tyler childcare all the way to
senior programs. Most people know the Urban Leagues for workforce development.
We have strong training programs and construction training programs. We
(00:59):
have clean energy programs, so our services really are about
helping families advance economically and so. Yeah, so we have
something called the Financial Opportunity Center. I heard you mentioned
you have your investment partner here today. But so you know,
really about getting your money straight and helping families get
on a better trajectory through financial coaching and planning. We
(01:21):
have that at the Urban.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You established that, y, yes, I think, and you've been
there since two thousand and four.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
What don't do that?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yes? Twenty I twenty one years.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
That's amazing. Tell us more about that.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
The Financial Opportunity.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Center, Oh yeah, So we establish that with an organization
called LISK. And so the Financial Opportunity Center really is
built around the idea that, yes, people need to get
their financials in order, but generally speaking, most families don't
have enough money coming into their household. So we pair
the financial coaching with the employment services. So I say,
(02:00):
most people I know get their income from a job.
I get my income from a job, but most families
need a better job, right, So a lot of families
are sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It's not
that they're mismanaging their money, as I said, it's like
they don't have enough money. So really, initially when you
come into the Financial Opportunities and the first service you
(02:20):
get we do an income benefit screening. So we want
to make sure everything your family's entitled to receive, you're
getting those resources into your household. So many of our
clients are low and moderate income family, so maybe they
need a childcare subsidy, or maybe they need, you know,
some sort of health benefits, things like that. We make
sure everything they're entitled to receive they get it. Then
(02:40):
we pair you with a financial coach. So now that
we know everything you can have in your house, so
we're going to try to balance you out right, So,
you know, do you clean up your credit, do you
need to you know, cut out some of those services
you've been buying, you know, just different things like that.
And then once we get you stable, then we talk
about how do you build how do you build assets
(03:01):
and build wealth?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And you know, mostly, man, I love everything you just
said right now, because one thing I learned early on
is that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
People will tell you, oh, just cut out this, cut
out that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But sometimes you do need to just make more money, yes,
and that's that simple.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, And at times that.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Does come with more training whatever it is that you
need to be able to work on that, because sometimes
we get stuck in a situation where you're in a
cycle of I just need to be able to pay
my bills. I have to have this job, I have
to be content here, I have to figure it out.
But sometimes you do have to say, okay, let's find
some solutions. And then in addition to that, coming in
there and getting your credit right, seeing what's going on
(03:38):
with your finances, getting the coaching that you need, all
of those things are super important.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So it's amazing that you have that.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And housing is also something that you focus on with
the Urban League of Ess County.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Well, definitely when I talked about housing. What I love
about what you just said is you start by giving
people more. That's so important to the mindset instead of
like what Angelo is saying to the time the financial coaching,
Oh cut this, you're overspending here. It's just always about
what you don't have in lack. But starting Hey, did
you know you're entitled to all this? That's just perfect.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah. So you know there is research around the scarcity mindset.
How does that affect exactly decision making?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So yeah, really it's helping family see the assets that
they have. And also the urbanings approach is really a
holistic approach, so we work with the entire family. We
don't just work with the one person in the family,
the breadwinner in the family, or you know, the single mom.
But it's really about the entire family, because you want
to talk to the young people too, about like spending right,
(04:38):
so your mother can't afford those air Jordan sneakers or whatever,
you know, But we don't talk about finances to our families.
And a lot of times, especially I say, like black women,
you know, we don't want to deprive our children, right.
We want to give them things, right, we want to
feel like we're providing for them. But it's also you know,
it's also realistic to say this we can do and
(05:01):
this we can't do. And we find once once you
talk to an entire family and they have a better
sense of, you know, what their goals are as a family,
you talk like, where are you trying to go as
a family, you know, and does this decision you're making
help the family or doesn't hurt the family?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Rights under your whole model takes people out of the
shame and blame dynamic exact And then when they have
those conversations, when you have a really open, honest conversation
with your kid, like tell them what your financial mistakes
for your challenges where that's where the real goal is relationship,
because you.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Know, sometimes people don't even want to admit that to themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And then I think, and I think it's better when
you are working towards a solution than when you still
feel stuck in a situation. And sometimes it is just
as simple as going in and taking that step, that
first step to say I need some help and having
somebody that can help quote you through that, because a
lot of that you can't necessarily or you shouldn't have
(05:55):
to do it on your own, not when there's resources
that's available for you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Housing is another really important tenant for the Urban League
of Essex County, So talk to me about how housing
is something that you also focus on.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Sure, so we actually have I guess years ago we
started with housing counseling, really first time home buyers programs
and things like that to help people build wealth through
home ownership. But about ten years ago I started looking
into developing. So we wanted to develop our own housing
because I actually can create jobs and opportunities in your community,
(06:29):
and also to address the racial wealth gap, we wanted
to have home ownership accessible to family. So in Newark,
the average family probably makes about forty five thousand dollars
a year, So forty five thousand dollars a year. My
view is that the way housing market is going, they
couldn't afford anything right, So right where the urbanly's offices
are located, a two family home might go for eight
(06:51):
hundred thousand dollars. Who can't afford that, especially that, So
my goal was to build housing for the average working
family in Newark. So we just finish eight homes. We
do two family homes so that people have an income
unit producing and we're selling those for under two hundred
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I see.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That's amazing because housing is definitely one of the biggest
issues that we're facing.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Sure right now.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So and another thing, this is just amazing. I'm glad
you came in here today.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
We're going to nerd out with you.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So now you've been doing this work career for twenty
one years. Another thing that you guys do is also
help people negotiate with landlords when it comes to housing too,
because sometimes if you can't pay your rent, I mean,
it turns into a really volatile situation. We've seen awful
things happen when the tenant and the landlord aren't getting along.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, So even the families facing eviction, you know, the
eviction has such multiple impacts. So if you think about
the children in the household, if a family's evicted, they're
disrupted in schools and everything. So keeping families in their
apartments is very important for the stability, long term stability,
and so we do have counselors that negotiate with landlords.
(08:04):
We also if we can access funds, we can access
funds for first time first month's rent, security deposit, things
like that, and we can help families get stabilized.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
But the main thing is with all the government cuts,
a lot of those funds are not accessible to us.
So the need is much greater than the funds are available.
So if you think about a family, you know, if
your rent is twenty five hundred dollars, if you're three
months behind, that's a that's a that's you know, that's
a big number to try to come up with seventy
five hundred dollars. So even if you come to the
(08:37):
Urban League and we're trying to help you avoid being evicted,
we got to pay your back rent, right So you
can see if somebody's three months behind or four months behind.
Those numbers they add up quite quickly, right, they exceed
the resources that we have.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
How have you seen things affected? I know you you
just talked about funding getting cut. How have you seen
services that you've been able to provide get affected by
a lot of these cuts.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, so I said, we're down about four million dollars
this year and fund this is this urban league, right,
And so we had a seniors program we helped had
about two hundred seniors in our program and they got
fifteen hours of work fifteen fifteen hours a week. They
were volunteering in social service organizations or government agencies, and
(09:28):
they got paid minimum wage for that. So these are
low income seniors. They were cut off from the program,
so many of them. You know, we had one client
who had because he was in the program, was able
to move out of a shelter into a rooming house.
And now he's back in the shelter again, just because
that small amount of money. And that's sort of the
(09:50):
cruelty of what you see is that even for a
small sum like that, it can be the difference for
a low income senior being able to you know, buy
food or pay their rent.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Things like that, tell people what this is like for
you in real time? You run this organization that touches
so many people four million dollars short. Are you scrambling
to private donors? How do you continue to function?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah? Well, uh, well, I guess I say. I've been
doing nonprofit tutes for twenty years, right, So this is
a different day in a sense that so many of
the multiple programs are being impacted at the same time.
Rental assistance, childcare assistance, housing, all of these things are
being cut at one time. So generally speaking, we may
see one air you know, new administration comes in, they
(10:35):
cut one thing, but the other things stay. No, but
right now it's all the entire government, the entire social
safety net is being shripped shreds.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
And so many people are unemployed, so many people unemployed.
Prices of everything is up, groceries, everything, you know. It's
interesting because we also are coming up of a time
where during the pandemic, people were in corporations, were activists
and wanting to donate, and now we're like at the
exact opposite side of that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, I mean, so I'll say we do have some
corporations who have supported us over the years, right, they know,
they know the value of the work that we do.
So we have seen some some some changes in funding.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
So the climate is that you know, they're they're not
funding DEI programs or any program that you say you're
you're target helping, you know, minority communities.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So there is some internal things that are going on
in different corporations, but we see many of the foundations
have stepped up and.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's what we have to do now.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And so to that point, you do have a job fare, Yes,
that's coming up.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Can you tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, so we have a job fair coming up. I
think it's on October fifteenth. Yeah, so my the Financial
Opportunity Center, I said, it has financial the financial component
plus the employment component. They're integrated or is this work together?
So they do have a we do have a job
fair coming up in my employment team is there with
the UH well with all the employers, you know. So
(12:08):
we help the clients to come in to scrint, get
them prepared for interviews, get them prepared with their resumes
and everything, so they're prepare for the job fare.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
One of the biggest fallouts from d I cancelations has
been black women. Yes, in particular, I think we have
about four hundred thousand Black women have been less, been
let go. Many more have left the workforce. Black unemployment.
How are you guys even addressing this and what are
you seeing? It feels like it's just all the things
(12:37):
you work on, it's got to make it so much worse.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, So it's you know, the interest that it's not
even interesting. The challenging thing is that it's all up
and down the economic structure for Black women, a high
paid black women, low income black women. It's the whole
safety you know, the whole structure of our families. So
many many Black women aren't maybe the breadwinner in.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Their household a majority, right, And now you're.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Affecting all of us. So whether you have a PhD
or you have a high school diploma, you're being impacted.
So even many of the clients we have women come in.
Let's say they cut like the childcare funding. So if
you have an infant right now, you cannot get a
subsidy or any sort of support for childcare right now
because they cut it off as of August right, no
(13:22):
new applicants. So if you're a new mom or something
like that, you.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Can't get it.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
How are you going to go back to work if
you can't pay for childcare? And childcare is very expensive,
so you know it is challenging. And uh, but I
tell you about Urban League was built for this. You know,
we were built at a time of adversity, and you know,
we're going to stand in the gap. And I'm pretty
aggressive in terms of looking for new resources and of
trying to find additional resources in order to fill those gaps.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And what about this women in Construction program? Because speaking
of new thinking of ways to be creative, talk to
me about this she shed. Oh you know about the
she sheds everything? Yes, I heard construction, Women in construction, Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, so we have this is probably a third year running.
It's Women in Construction program where we introduce women to
you know, the opportunities in the construction field. So yes,
not only just the you don't just have to have
the hammer. You could be a project manager. There are
a lot of opportunities in construction. And so yeah, so
we had a program and the women we decided we're
(14:30):
going to build she shed. So they built one. Actually
we have a model. We built it and we're going.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
To sell them.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
So I said, you can be the entrepreneur, and you know,
and if it's a man, you can get a man cave.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It doesn't have to be just a she shd because
I'm telling you, we pay a lot more attention to details,
no shade to the men out there.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Things where very detail oriented.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
If we need to like put down some tiles and
we're going to make sure it's amazing, it's a little okay,
We got to make sure we take care of just
all of the attention to detail. But I do feel
like I I don't see a lot of women in
that field, and so I do see that that's never
going anywhere either, Like this is something that we constantly need,
especially right now.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yes, and there are opportunities in the construction field, so
you have to we also have to face the reality
that some firms, you know, they want a man. They
think only men can do construction. You know, it's a
traditionally a male dominated field. But we're able to break through.
We get the women.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
In, get yourself under you, and get everybody working head
you handle all of that. And then you also have
the Urban League annual Gala event on October twenty first.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Is coming up. Yes, so it's our annual fundraiser for
the Urban League, and it also gives us an opportunity
to recognize individuals who've made contributions to the Newark area.
And so we are honoring some individual Father Ed he
actually at Saint Benedict's Academy, has been there, I think
(16:00):
over forty years. And let's say Rob Clark, he's at
Newark Youth Opportunity Network. He founded Newark Youth Built Think
about Construction and he founded that over twenty years ago,
and so we're really excited about that and certainly honoring
our corporate partner, which is United Airlines as well as Lisk.
We've had a long partnership with them actually from even
(16:22):
starting the Financial Opportunity Center.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So Lisk is pretty amazing yees.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So it's a pretty pretty big deal. For the October
twenty first our is our gala, and we're still selling
tickets and ads and things like that.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
So there's so many people out there who need the
Urban League services. How do they go about finding the
help they need in their areas? And here?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh so in Esa Town. You can find us on
the web at ULC dot org. We're also on Instagram,
I think, and my social media, people will say Urban
League EC we're on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn too, but yeah,
but you can come right where we are. One thing
about Urban Links is we do have a full time staff.
They're they're there to help you every day and to be,
(17:05):
you know, with compassion and also know that many many
of my staff have experienced many of the same same
challenges that clients that come in.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Have, So the empathy that a person will have is
on a different level. Exactly at Newark, I think is
a hotbed right now too for people who want to invest.
I see a lot of businesses opening, a lot of
real estate opportunities. I always think it's really important for
people from somewhere to really be able to partake in that.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah so, yeah, so I think you should come to
the Urban w We have classes. We also have a
partnership with organizations to get people into development. If you
want to be your own developer, why not you should
Right so, on your block. I used to tell families,
you know, own your house, on your block.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Own your neighborhood, and on your children's future.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Right so, like there's a vacant lot, why not try
to figure out how to get it and build on it. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
We love this.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, my parents live in Essex County, so yeah, they
live in South Orene, all right, right next to Nework.
All right, well, thank you so much, President Vivian Coxpraser
for joining us today. We really appreciate you. And yeah,
so the fifteenth is the job fair yep. And the
twenty first is the Gallas Okay, all right, it's definitely
way up.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Thank you, Thank you for coming to Wealth Wednesdays.