Building Strong Communities by Strengthening Families

IMPACT. 1: Weinland Park, a neighborhood located in the University District, once plagued by drugs, gangs, low-performing schools, high disinvestment of businesses and substandard housing, is now being transformed into a neighborhood of choice, where people want to live, work, worship and attend school! -- 2. In Weinland Park, OSU Extension strives to fulfill our mission through the use of Individual Development Accounts (IDA), a savings incentive program designed to empower low-moderate income families to save towards an asset goal of homeownership, post-secondary education or small business ownership. Participants must remain in the program up to one year; make regular monthly deposits into a dedicated savings account; attend an eight-hour Financial Literacy workshop and attend asset-specific training (up to 10 hours). Participants who successfully complete the program and save $500 receive a match of $1,000 towards their asset goal. These funds are made available through public and private sources.OSU PARTNERS: Campus Partners; College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; OSU ExtensionCOMMUNITY PARTNERS: Habitat for Humanity of Mid-Ohio; Increase CDC; Ohio CDC Association; Weinland Park Collaborative; Weinland Park Community Civic AssociationPRIMARY CONTACT: Susan Colbert (Colbert.22@osu.edu)Ohio State University Extension brings the knowledge of the university to your door. We fulfill the land-grant mission of The Ohio State University by interpreting knowledge and research developed by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Ohio State and other land-grant universities, so that Ohioans can use the scientifically based information to better their lives, businesses and communities