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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Community Action: Building Bank Accounts and Lives

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Monday, August 16, 2010   

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Save $50 a month, and have someone hand you another $100? That's exactly what's happening across Florida as part of the Individual Development Account program sponsored by community action agencies.

John Edwards, executive director of the Northeast Florida Community Action Agency, says it's a matched savings program: For every dollar saved, the agency will match it 2-to-1 up to $50 a month. He says the agency gets $250,000 a year in federal funds to work with about 100 low-income people who want to start a business, own a home or go back to school.

"As they make their deposits monthly, they can see their money growing tremendously. I wish I could go somewhere and save a dollar and get two, or save $50 a month and get $100 - I'd take that every day of the week."

To qualify, people cannot earn more than 200 percent of the poverty level, or about $26,000 a year for a family of three, Edwards says. He adds that counselors work with clients one-on-one to help them develop business plans, clean up credit issues and get them on a budget.

Edwards says the agency is not only helping build bank accounts, but building successful lives.

"It's offering more than just a matched savings; it's all the skills that are necessary in order for you to achieve that goal while you're saving money."

Edwards says the individual development account program is designed to help low-income people become more self-sufficient.

"It's one thing to give them a fish so they can feed themselves for the day; it's an entirely different more powerful and empowering phenomenon if we're able to help people to fish for themselves."

Edwards says the agency hopes to get $500,000 in federal money next year, and double the number of people they can help.





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