From January through March 2019, nearly 200 families attended welcome events to learn how they and their children could participate in Boston Saves, the City of Boston’s children’s savings account program. The events were hosted at the eleven BPS schools
Here’s a riddle: How does the Boston Tax Help Coalition prepare approximately 13,000 tax returns – for free – each year? The short answer is: Volunteers. Lots of them. And this tax season, there’s a new volunteer coordinator to make
Santander Bank and the Mayor’s Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) have announced that the Boston-based bank is providing a $200,000 grant in support of OFE’s financial education and economic development work for City residents. The OFE will use the grant to
In addition to visiting one of the Boston Tax Help Coalition’s free tax sites staffed by IRS certified volunteers, the BTHC also promotes a service called Free File that is also approved by the IRS. Residents can click here to
In Boston today, 17% of households live in poverty but far more (46%) are financially vulnerable. These liquid asset poor households do not have enough savings to live even at the poverty level for three months if they were to have
The National League of Cities (NLC) has invited Boston and four other cities to participate in a new Children’s Savings Account (CSA) learning collaborative cohort. This will enhance and support Boston’s own CSA pilot program that is expected to launch
The Office of Financial Empowerment launched an innovated Youth Credit Building program earlier this year, aimed to help Boston’s youngest working professionals learn about and improve their FICO scores while saving so as to achieve lasting lifetime savings and improve
Because taxes are no less mandatory if you don’t speak the language, the Boston Tax Help Coalition (BTHC) provides help in Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Somali, Cape Verdean Creole, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese. But those are only the voiced languages. The
Last week, I showed up one of the Boston Tax Help Coalition’s VITA tax sites: Urban Edge to get my taxes done – for free – wondering why, in my 10 years in Boston, I’d never done this before. Maybe
Addressing income inequality is a priority for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and he has articulated a vision for the City of Boston that focuses on prosperity for Boston’s families. In 2014, he created the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), and