About Us

NEED A FINANCIAL EDUCATION SPEAKER?

Would you like to sponsor a financial education class at your community center, place of worship or school?

- Contact the Coalition to request a speaker. Topics include:
     - Setting Goals
     - Creating a Spending Plan that Works
     - Saving and Banking
     - Using Credit Wisely
     - Managing Debt, Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft, and other Money Scams

- There is no charge for this service. 
    - Email cde@law.fordham.edu or call 212-636-7752.

- Thinking of becoming a Volunteer?
     - Contact the Coalition to learn more and sign up for a FREE Training Course

The Coalition for Debtor Education (CDE), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, which has involved Fordham and New York Law Schools and their staff, was established in 1998. Since then, the CDE has produced, published, revised and evaluated a financial literacy curriculum that emphasizes not only traditional knowledge, but also adult learning methods and the psychology of money. Throughout this 10-year period, the CDE has studied empirically the efficacy of our financial literacy classes and our train-the-trainer sessions. We have also participated in academic studies of the effects of emotion on disclosure regulation, and currently are involved in a study of the efficacy of various credit counseling initiatives.

The US Trustee for Region 2 has approved The Coaliton for Debtor Education to provide a personal financial management instructional course in the Eastern and Southern New York Judicial Districts.

Provided Training for NYC Office of Financial Empowerment

• The Coalition trained counselors in a two-week intensive course for the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), part of NYC’s Department of Consumer Affairs. The course encompassed legal, psychological and financial content to equip DCA’s financial counseling staff with the knowledge, skills and experiential learning to meet the needs of clients in OFE’s first Neighborhood Empowerment Center in the Melrose section of the Bronx.

The Financial Empowerment Center in Melrose at the Phipps Opportunity Center (PDF)

• Banking Development District Program The Coalition, partnering with the NYC Housing Authority and local financial institutions, is currently delivering practical financial education to populations of NYCHA residences, specifically in Banking Development Districts. The program consists of two components: train-the-trainer sessions in which we equip professionals from partner institutions with the tools to teach financial literacy; and end- user sessions in which we help in organizing and executing the teaching sessions in the NYCHA communities. Last summer, CDE taught classes in the NYCHA Summer Youth Employment Program, reaching over 1,800 teens. This year we will again teach the SYEP in all five boroughs. Thus far in 2008, we have provided 30 classes to NYCHA residents on the Lower East Side (LES) and are currently focused on Harlem over the next several months.

Train the Trainer Program Trained more than 450 people, including financial professionals and community services providers, to teach financial literacy 

• Designed, implemented, and empirically assessed a pilot financial literacy program for consumers who filed for bankruptcy in the Eastern District of New York (2001-2002) and educated more than 600 individuals in this program.
• Licensed our material to an approved internet-based provider of credit counseling and personal financial management education 
• Created and administered a pilot Pro Se program in the Eastern District Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn
• Presented a Financial Literacy Conference in 2005, which led to the formation of the Financial Literacy Education Coalition under the umbrella of the United Way of New York City. 
• Trained United Way staff, staff in United Way grantee programs, as well as staff and volunteers of other nonprofit organizations, especially those with a financial education component.