Help for Families

Individual Development Accounts

Buy a house! Start a business! Go back to school!

Individual Development Accounts helps families realize these dreams and achieve financial stability.

The Individual Development Account (IDA) program addresses one of the biggest obstacles encountered by people with low incomes: their lack of assets and corresponding financial insecurity. One-half of all American households have less than $1,000 in net financial assets.

IDAs are matched savings accounts designed to help families invest in assets such as education, home ownership, home rehab and repair, and small business development.

There are three key components to the CommonCents program:
• Participants save each month and these savings are matched 3:1. (In other words, for every $100 that a participant saves, we match their savings with $300.)
• Participants attend an extensive financial education course that teaches them how to budget their money, decrease their debt, maintain good credit, and save for the future. After this course ends, participants continue to meet, learn and support each other through a monthly Savings Club, where we continue to cover a broad range of financial topics.
• Participants receive ongoing, one-on-one financial counseling from program staff on a monthly basis.

We have space for fifteen (15) more participants who will begin in June of 2009. If you know someone who could benefit from this program, have them contact us now to be added to our wait list!

For more information, contact:
Annette King,
219-794-1829 ext 2441
aking@nwi-ca.org