Mid Central Community Action launches Financial Opportunity Center

Posted on July 25, 2018
Mid Central Community Action
Local Initiatives Supports Corporation of Peoria is helping launch a new Financial Opportunity Center at Mid Central Community Action to help the unemployed find work. (WJBC file photo)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Peoria is joining with Mid Central Community Action to realize lifelong goals for residents in Bloomington-Normal.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) of Peoria along with State Farm launched the Financial Opportunity Center at Mid Central Community Action at 1301 W. Washington St., aimed at helping those through the Twin Cities gain employment and build a better future.

“Mid Central Community Action has integrated the Financial Opportunity Center model into its Next Step program in collaboration with Heartland Community College to offer career and personal finance services. MCCA’s Next Step FOC will provide employment coaching and job readiness training, and financial coaching and education that helps build credit, savings and assets while helping customers build smart money habit and focus on the financial bottom line,” Mid Central Community Action noted in a news release.

One of the main goals of the new Financial Opportunity Center is to help provide a longterm commitment to personal goals.

“The Next Step FOC will also connect clients with public benefits such as SNAP, utility assistance, affordable health insurance, and others. The cornerstone of the FOC model is providing these services in an integrated way – rather than as stand alone services – and with a longterm commitment to helping clients reach their goals,” added Mid Central Community Action in the release.

Mid Central Community Action which offers a variety of programs and employment is open from Monday through Friday 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…