The Financial Outreach Initiative began during the 2002-2003 academic year. The project mission is to organize, implement, and sustain a multi-university project concerned with various forms of asset development for low-income communities in the Philadelphia region. 

During the 2005 tax-filing season, students from Swarthmore College, Widener University, Rosemont College, Bryn Mawr College and Villanova University provided free tax services to over 1000 filers who collectively received over $1.27 million in refunds. The target audience for this effort is low-income filers eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  This credit has been touted to be the most effective way of lifting a family above the federally defined poverty line. In order to accomplish this, we created a special working group, Delaware Couty Asset Development or "DelCoAD" to oversee this project as well as discuss ongoing issues with regard to asset development in the county. 

Organizations participating in DelCoAD are:

• Centro de Apoyo Comuntario
  
• Chester Community Improvement Project
  
• Chester Education Foundation
• Chester Microenterprise Partnership
• Community Action Agency of Delaware County
• Consumer Credit Counseling Services of the Delaware Valley
  
• Darby Borough Community Development Corporation
  
• Delaware County Family Centers
• Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union
• Internal Revenue Service - Stakeholder Partnerships, Education, and Communication
• Neumann College
• Office of Housing and Community Development, Delaware County
  
• PathWaysPA, Inc.
  
• Rosemont College
  
• Swarthmore College 
• Villanova University
• United Way of Southeast Delaware County
  
• Widener University
• Women of War Ministries
  
• YWCA of Chester
  

• Click here to see the locations and hours of operation for each Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site in Delaware and Montgomery Counties (updated for 2007)
  
• Click here to see if you qualify for the EITC (updated for 2005)
  
• Click here to see an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about DelCoAD (03/03/03)

"On-site banking"will be available at the four VITA sites in the City of Chester.  To read more about this initiative, click here.

In future years, we hope to expand the VITA sites to offer other public benefit enrollments such as food stamps and health insurance.  In addition, we hope to expand to other areas of asset development, such as Individual Development Accounts, financial education, savers clubs, microenterprise development, and micro-loan funds.

While the Financial Outreach Initiative has been conceived of as a community outreach program primarily, it is also serving well as a means toward recruiting business students to work in community settings.  Thus, the partnership between the colleges and the community organizations has been mutually-beneficial.

If you would like more information about this program, please contact Hillary Aisenstein at 215-573-2379 or hillarya@pobox.upenn.edu.

If you would like to join DelCoAD, please contact Hillary as well.