The Financial Empowerment Center model has operated municipal free services for fifteen years, and across nearly three dozen operational FECs has worked with more than 180,000 clients, helping them reduce debt by more than $283 million, and increase savings by $57 million. Professionally trained FEC counselors help clients with low to moderate incomes manage their finances, pay down debt, increase savings, establish and build credit, and access safe and affordable mainstream banking products.

The core tenets of the FEC model are:

• Financial counseling is provided as a no cost public service, with counseling delivered one-on-one to empower clients to address complex financial challenges.
• Counselors are professionally trained according to the CFE Fund’s rigorous FEC Counselor Training Standards and a Code of Ethics.
• Counseling services are managed through rigorous data; the central FEC database collects over 200 client data points, and impact is measured against specific financial behavior change outcomes.
• Because financial instability impacts the need for, and success of, other social services, strategic FEC partnerships with other services such as housing and foreclosure prevention, workforce development, prisoner reentry, and benefits access are critical.
• Financial counseling serves a critical public need, and local government oversight provides for credibility, accountability, scale, and program sustainability.

The FEC Counselor Training Process 

Each FEC Planning Partner trains their financial counselors in accordance with the requirements and competencies detailed in the CFE Fund’s FEC Counselor Training and Code of Conduct Standards. The Standards delineate the breadth and depth of the financial content areas, counseling and coaching skills, practice and experiential learning, code of ethics mandates, and socio-economic and cultural context setting necessary to serve the diverse needs and backgrounds of FEC clients.