During her pregnancy, Goodyear Heights resident Chantai, enrolled in Full Term First Birthday. A program for pregnant women in Akron, Full Term First Birthday (FTFB) promotes healthy full-term pregnancies and helps ensure every child celebrates their first birthday. But FTFB offered more than pregnancy support; it opened the door to United Way of Summit & Medina’s Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) in Akron and helped Chantai and her now 3-year-old daughter on the path to financial empowerment.
United Way of Summit & Medina’s Financial Empowerment Centers help Summit and Medina County residents build financial stability by giving them the resources to budget and save, pay down debt and boost their credit scores.
Chantai started financial coaching with a credit score of 592 and eight delinquent accounts. She was behind on her student loans and only had $3,000 of Covid relief funds left in her savings. Going into financial coaching, Chantai said, “I want to be better financially equipped. I want to put myself in a place where I can teach my daughter about finances, but I needed to learn first.”
Since gaining the skills she needs to be financially secure, Chantai is thriving as a new mother and is confident in her ability to give her daughter the life she deserves. After just two years, Chantai increased her credit score to a 737, has zero delinquent accounts, her student loans are in good standing, and she was able to bring her savings up to $12,500 – enough to put a substantial down payment on a car and have savings left in the bank.
Chantai has big plans for her future. She’s looking forward to being a homeowner and even wants to open her own business one day. The FEC showed her that with the right tools anything is possible.
Her only regret is that she didn’t know about this resource sooner.
“I want to start a cycle of generational wealth for my daughter. And because of United Way of Summit & Medina’s Financial Empowerment Center, I’m going to be able to do that.”