Mainstream Development Educators, CDCU Reps to Trade Places

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON — A program designed to help mainstream credit unions and community development credit unions learn from another is poised to get off the ground in early 2008.

The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions and the National Credit Union Foundation have announced the first participating credit unions in their joint Credit Union Development Corps program.

The Development Corps will place Credit Union Development Educators from a so-called mainstream credit union in a community development credit union for a week to observe how the CDCU works with its lower income members. Subsequently, a representative from the CDCU will spend a week at the mainstream CU observing that CU's programs and operations.

In the first pairings DEs from Selfreliance FCU (headquartered in Chicago), Philadelphia FCU (Philadelphia), AEA FCU (Yuma, Arizona) and Washington State Employees CU (Olympia, Washington) will work with representatives from Vernon Commerce CU (Commerce California), Lower East Side Peoples FCU (New York, NY), Triumph Baptist FCU (Philadelphia) and NRS Community Development FCU (Birmingham, Alabama.).

The first exchanges are expected to take place in the first quarter of 2008, the Federation said.

Tom Decker, National Director for the Credit Union Center for Social Impact Management at NCUF, remarked that the Foundation was eager to get started.

“We are very excited to partner with the Federation on this creative and compelling new program that promotes and embodies the spirit of service, while enhancing an understanding and appreciation of credit unions of all sizes and what makes each unique,” Decker said.

The Lower East Side Peoples FCU, for example, applied to the program looking for assistance in learning more about mortgage secondary markets and Small Business Administration loans in order to provide additional services to spur economic security and growth in the communities they serve. Program organizers hope that pairing Claire Ippoliti, CUDE, Vice President of Lending at Philadelphia FCU, with the Lower East Side Peoples, will provide New York City's largest CDCU with the requested expertise during their exchange.

Dora Turula, a DE who is Marketing and Public Relations consultant at Selfreliance FCU, is looking forward to visiting Vernon-Commerce CU and learning more about the CDCU's work. According to Ms. Turula, “CDCUs are an essential part of the credit union system, providing assistance to those who would otherwise have no access to financial services, and much of that expertise will be applicable for serving people of modest means at our own credit union.”

“We hope that the CU Development Corps will create strong bonds between participants as well as their institutions–partnerships that will bring together large and small CUs, foster the cooperative spirit, and create a stronger and more unified credit union movement,” explained Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal.