Philadelphia, PA – Bloomberg Philanthropies and Living Cities’ Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund today announced that it has awarded Philadelphia with a grant to replicate New York City’s evidence-based Financial Empowerment Center model. Philadelphia is one of five U.S. cities to be awarded a grant, which will enable the City to deliver free, one-on-one financial counseling by trained professionals to low-income residents by integrating counseling into the delivery of municipal services.

“The City of Philadelphia has demonstrated a real desire to help families achieve long-term financial stability,” said New York City Mayor and philanthropist Michael R. Bloomberg. “The Mayors Project at Bloomberg Philanthropies spreads effective solutions to challenges that cities across the county are facing. We hope through this grant that the effective Financial Empowerment Center model will create measurable change for low-income residents in Philadelphia.”

The Financial Empowerment Center initiative is the latest investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Project, the government innovation program that seeks to spread proven and promising ideas among cities. Through a $16.2 million investment in Living Cities’ CFE Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide grants to Denver, CO; Lansing, MI; Nashville, TN; Philadelphia, PA; and San Antonio, TX, and enable extensive technical assistance to help each city replicate and customize the model.

“We know one of the key pathways out of poverty is to increase the financial stability of low-income households by boosting income, decreasing debt, and increasing access to saving and asset-building opportunities,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “By offering personalized financial literacy services to low-income individuals, we make it possible for Philadelphia families to move toward self-sufficiency and, ultimately, better position our City economically for the future.”

The City of Philadelphia received a $3.3 million grant to create Financial Empowerment Centers. The Centers will open in March 2013 and will be operated by the Office of Mayor Michael A. Nutter in partnership with Clarifi, previously known as the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Delaware Valley. Through this grant, Philadelphia will open two Financial Empowerment Centers and four satellite locations in areas with high poverty concentrations, low educational attainment, new immigrants, new entrants to the workforce and the working poor. Philadelphia’s Financial Empowerment Centers intend to counsel 9,000 low-income Philadelphians over the initial three-year period.

Patty Hasson, President and Executive Director of Clarifi added, “As a nonprofit provider of financial counseling to over 600,000 individuals in the Philadelphia region for 47 years, Clarifi is committed and excited to expand its resources to support the Financial Empowerment initiative. We look forward to implementing this highly successful model of one-on-one financial counseling to help 9,000 Philadelphia clients save and reduce debt.”

Philadelphia joined Denver, Lansing, Nashville, and San Antonio in receiving the Financial Empowerment Center grants through a competitive process in which nearly fifty cities applied. These cities exhibited the most thoughtful, creative approach, as well as committed leadership and strong partnerships for replicating the model in their local communities.

In 2008, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the City of New York would pilot Financial Empowerment Centers as part of a broad effort to test and refine new approaches to alleviating poverty. While initially privately funded, the Centers became publicly funded after their data-proven impact. Since the pilot commenced, the program has grown to nearly 30 Centers, helping more than 19,000 New Yorkers reduce their debt by more than $9 million and save more than $1 million.

Through the Living Cities’ CFE Fund project, services are delivered in a more cost-effective manner and better outcomes are achieved across the array of social services, by seamlessly integrating financial counseling into traditional anti-poverty efforts. In addition to financial counseling, the model has a strong focus on integrating with other services driving toward self-sufficiency, including benefits enrollment, family stabilization services, workforce training and job placement, housing, and other supports.

To learn more about the Living Cities’ CFE Fund grants, visit www.cfefund.org. Join the conversation on Twitter using #FinancialEmpowerment.

About Bloomberg Philanthropies

Bloomberg Philanthropies works primarily to advance five areas globally: the Arts, Education, the Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. In 2011, $330 million was distributed. Government Innovation efforts, including the Financial Empowerment Centers, are part of the Mayors Project, which seeks to spread proven and promising ideas among cities. Other Mayors Project investments include Cities of Service, Innovation Delivery Teams, and the Mayors Challenge.

About Living Cities

Founded in 1991, Living Cities is an innovative collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions. In nearly 20 years Living Cities’ members have collectively invested almost $1 billion, helping shape federal funding programs, redirecting public and private resources, and helping communities to build homes, stores, schools, community facilities and more. For more information, please visit: http://www.livingcities.org/.

About The CFE Fund

Living Cities’ CFE Fund supports municipal efforts to improve the financial stability of households by leveraging opportunities unique to local government. By translating cutting edge experience with large scale programs, research, and policy in cities of all sizes, the CFE Fund assists mayors and other local leaders to identify, develop, fund, implement, and research pilots and programs that help families build assets and make the most of their financial resources. For more information, please visit http://www.cfefund.org/ or email us at info@cfefund.org.

Commercial Clearwater Company Inc. specializes in Swimming Pool Water Quality Control. They have successfully completed swimming pool installations and rehabilitation for Water Parks, Municipalities, Schools, YMCAs, Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs, Jewish Community Centers, etc., both in this region and throughout the country. They are available to help you in all phases of a project. Click here to contact The Pool Man.

Independent Sealing is a local manufacturer of custom gaskets.

Aerofeed is a leading producer of specialized storage cabinets for use in the production phases of electronics manufacturing. Founded in 1965, the company began building nitrogen storage cabinets in 1971, which, due to their white laminated exteriors, quickly became the most recognizable nitrogen cabinets in the industry. Cabinets with different exteriors for storing thick film printing screens and solder paste stencils followed a few years later, then cabinets for reeled components, feeders and custom applications. Today, AEROFEED offers cabinets in a variety of standard sizes and ESD control options, ranging from none to total, depending on customer requirements. Our innovative design features, quality workmanship, and conscientious customer service make AEROFEED the first name in storage for electronics manufacturing environments – commercial, industrial, and medical.

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The goals of the Air Quality Partnership are to increase the public’s understanding on the impact of air pollution, provide alerts for days with high air pollution, provide health effects information and guidelines to prevent or reduce exposure, and finally encourage voluntary actions to reduce air pollution emissions, especially on “Action Days”.

The Partnership forecasts “Action Days,” or days when the air is expected to be unhealthy to breathe. Using a color-coded scale, the forecast informs people about the predicted ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels and any precautions that need to be taken.

Ozone in the stratospheric ozone layer protects us from the sun’s harmful rays. But at ground-level, where we breathe it, it’s not so good for us. In the summer, sunlight and high temperatures ‘bake’ pollutants emitted by motor vehicles, power plants, industrial manufacturing and other sources to form high levels of ground-level ozone, commonly known as smog.

Particle pollution is the term for tiny drops of liquid or small particles of dust, metals and other material that float in the air. Some particles are large or dark enough to be seen as soot or smoke. Others are so small that they can only be detected with an electron microscope. Particle pollution comes from a variety of sources such as cars, power plants, factories, construction sites, forest fires, and municipal waste incinerators.

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PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Philadelphia Mummers organization says, ” The Philadelphia Mummers Parade features unique costumes, music, and pageantry. Crowds line Broad St., from South Philadelphia straight through Center City. The climax of the parade takes place at City Hall and the PA Convention Center where the official judging takes place.

The parade itself is one of the longest running traditions in the country. The parade began in 1900 as an official event for the city, however the parade has been going on since the 1800′s as a way to celebrate the New Year. The parade itself is divided into five divisions.”

When: New Year’s Day, January 1, 2013 starting at 10 a.m.
Where: The Parade marches north up Broad Street to JFK Boulevard.

FREE FAMILY FUN IN PHILLY

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Agents from the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Section have arrested 10 Philadelphia residents accused of participating in an organization allegedly responsible for producing and cashing approximately $40,000 worth of counterfeit business checks.

Kelly said the checking account details for at least four businesses were allegedly copied and stolen by a former teller at a Sovereign Bank branch located in Dresher, Montgomery County, identified as Latosha Mabry, 25, of 2119 Anchor St., Philadelphia.

According to the criminal complaint, Mabry provided the stolen information to an individual known only by the nickname, “Beans,” who allegedly operated a counterfeit check scheme.

Other participants in the scheme allegedly opened personal bank accounts, deposited counterfeit checks into those accounts and then used ATM machines to withdraw cash, or allowed their bank cards to be used for cash withdrawals, before the fraud was discovered. In most cases the forged checks, were for amounts ranging from $3,000 to $5,500.

Kelly said that in at least one instance, Christopher Canty allegedly served as a recruiter and intermediary for the organization – approaching August Pauline about participating in the scheme and then purportedly arranging a meeting between Pauline and “Beans” in order to transfer a counterfeit check to be deposited and cashed.

Pauline allegedly drew others into the operation – contacting Tyisha Nixon about making money cashing counterfeit checks.

Others accused of depositing counterfeit checks as part of this scheme include Salahudin McDowell, Katrina Love, Tyisha Nixon, Latasha Buie, Terrance Joyner, Michael Bullins and Jesse Warren, all of Philadelphia. All were allegedly approached by various unnamed members of the organization with solicitations to participate in the scheme.

According to the criminal complaint, many of the participants were paid $300 to $400 in order to open bank accounts, deposit the counterfeit checks and then turn over their debit cards so that stolen funds could be withdrawn.

Kelly said that investigators have identified approximately $40,000 in transactions involving counterfeit checks that were cashed by members of this organization. Efforts to identify other participants and organizers of this scheme are ongoing.

The defendants will be prosecuted in Montgomery County by Chief Deputy Attorney General Erik L. Olsen of the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Section.

Kelly thanked the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and Sovereign Bank for their cooperation and assistance with this ongoing investigation.

All of the defendants were taken into custody on Tuesday, December 18th and preliminarily arraigned before Ambler Magisterial District Judge Patricia Zaffarano.

The following is a list of the defendants who have been charged:

Latosha Denise Mabry, 25, 2119 Anchor St., Philadelphia.

Christopher Canty, 30, 5427 Master St., Philadelphia.

August Pauline, 35, 4600 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia.

Tyisha Nixon, 19, 3820 Fairmount Ave, Philadelphia.

Salahudin McDowell, 35, 1936 W. Ontario St., Philadelphia.

Katrina Love, 38, 1217 W. Cumberland St., Philadelphia.

Latasha Buie, 35, 2129 E. Birch St., Philadelphia.

Terrance Joyner, 19, 6223 Webster St., Philadelphia.

Michael Bullins, 35, 3744 N. Bouvier St., Philadelphia.

Jesse Warren, 26, 5313 Upland St., Philadelphia (currently incarcerated on unrelated charges).

Each of the defendants has been charged with forgery, which is a second-degree felony punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Additionally, the defendants are all charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, identify theft and criminal conspiracy, all third-degree felonies which are each punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines.

They are also charged with bad checks, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, along with securing documents by deception, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

(A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)

Latosha Denise Mabry

Christopher Canty

August Pauline

Tyisha Nixon

Salahudin McDowell

Katrina Love

Latasha Buie

Terrance Joyner

Michael Bullins

Jesse Warren