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>> Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We are going to get ready to start the webinar in about another 2 min. And then, we will come back on. >> Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our webinar on volunteer collaboration with Bank of America Disability Advocacy Network Info Session and National Disability Institute partners. My name is Michael Roush, and I am the manager of financial empowerment and innovation at the National Disability Institute. Today, I am joined by Pollock Kelly, client and business management executive WS trust Bank of America Private. wealth management division, chair of the disability advocacy network at Trent -- Bank of America, and Paula is also a board member of the National Disability Institute . >> Before we get started, we do have a few webinar housekeeping tips to go over. The audio for today's webinar is being broadcast through your computer. Please make sure that your speakers are turned on, or your headphones are plugged in. You can control the audio broadcast via the audio broadcast panel. If you accidentally close the panel, you can reopen it from the top menu item that says, communicate, join audio broadcast.
>> If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer, or you prefer to listen by phone, you can dial 1-855-244-8681, and that is the toll-free number. In the meeting code is 661829436. Please note, you do not need to enter an attendee ID. If you listen by phone.
>> We are using real-time captioning. It is provided during this webinar for those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or for whom English is a second language. The captions can be found in the media viewer panel, which appears in the lower right corner of the webinar platform. If you want to make the media viewer panel larger, you can minimize other panels like chat, the Q&A, and or participants.
>> If you like to submit a question during the webinar, please use the chat box or the question and answer box to send any questions that you have during the webinar. You can send them to either myself, or Nakia Matthews , and we will direct the questions accordingly during the Q&A portion that we have at the end of the webinar. If you are listening by phone and not locked into the webinar, you may also ask questions by e-mailing questions to [email protected] questions will go to Nakia Matthews. Please note, this webinar is being recorded and materials will be placed on the National Disability Institute website at www.realeconomicimpact.org.
>> If, during this webinar, you experience any type of difficulties, please use the chat box to send a message to the host, Nakia Matthews, or you may also e-mail Nakia at [email protected], I think everybody has Nakia's e-mail addresses now. If you have any questions during the webinar, please return out to Nakia Matthews.
>> So, great. Now, we are ready to get started into why we are here today. Today, we are here to share with you a new opportunity for collaboration between the Bank of America disability advocacy network members, and the National Disability Institute partners across the country. Today, you will learn more about the disability advocacy network at Bank of America. The volunteer opportunities with their members, and, how you can become involved in this collaboration. For those of you who are new to national disability Institute, the national disability Institute is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building a better economic future for Americans with disabilities.
>> We are the first national organization committed exclusively to championing economic empowerment, asset development and financial stability for all persons across the full spectrum of disabilities. National Disability Institute a sex change through public education, training, Tech assistance and policy development to help the one in three Americans with disabilities living in poverty take steps towards brighter financial futures.
>> Our organization is based in Washington DC, and have staff members located across the country. To learn more about National Disability Institute, go to www.realeconomicimpact.org.So, for those of you that have been long-time partners with the National Disability Institute , you know that Bank of America has been a longtime supporter of our work , and over 900 partners located across the country. Since our partnership began in 2005, Bank of America support has assisted 1.5 million taxpayers with disabilities, received more than $1.4 billion in tax refunds. Bank of America and their support has extended the real economic impact for, which is now called the real economic impact network from 11 cities in 2005 to over 100 cities in 2012. And in 2012, together, we educated over 1600 individuals on economic empowerment strategies for persons with disabilities. This is only a sample of the support that Bank of America has provided over the years to build inclusive communities of practice in more than 100 cities across the country. We are excited today to share additional opportunities to educate an even larger audience.
>> I am pleased to introduce Paula Kelly , who is with the US trust Bank of America Private. wealth management and the chair of the disability advocacy network at Bank of America. Apollo will share information with us on Bank of America's disability advocacy network and the two new opportunities for collaboration. Paula, I will turn it over to you.
>> Thank you, Michael. I'm very pleased to join all of you this afternoon, and also to welcome here on the call with me many of our disability advocacy network chapter leaders from cities across the country, as well as our partner in the Bank of America foundation. We are very excited to continue and to further build our relationship with NDI and work with all of you this year on the two opportunities that Michael referenced.
>> I will first just take a minute or two and tell you about theDisabilityAdvocacy Network at Bank of America. It is an employee affinity or resource group in particular the is for anybody impacted by a disability, either personally, or through family member, friend or colleague, or anyone who is just interested in being an advocate for those with disabilities. So, we were established to foster a work environment that really promotes and advocates for those employees impacted by disabilities. Membership has grown significantly over the last five years. We initially started as one virtual chapter with 40 members. We have now expanded to over 16 chapters globally. And, we have 1700+ active members and many thousands more who have attended the evidence that we have sponsored -- the events that we have sponsored here at the bank.
>> We have chapters, as you will see, in Atlanta, Michigan, San Antonio, Dallas, New Jersey, Southern California, Northern California, Boston and Eastern New England, Delaware, New York, Charlotte, Florida, Norfolk, Virginia and mean. And our collaboration with NDI this year, we are really going to focus our members in terms of working with all of you, here on the phone, and volunteer opportunities for volunteering for financial education training, as well as disability awareness training for any of your volunteers in asset building coalition members and partners.
>> So, Michael, I will turn it back over to you and we can go into more detail about those two opportunities.
>> Great, thank you, Paula. As Paula shared, we have two opportunities here for collaboration. And we are going to go into greater detail for both of them. And, I would like to share that at the end, we will have time for questions and answers. So, we will be able to answer your questions. So, the first one we want to share with you about is financial education training. And as we know, financial education is key to advancing up the economic ladder. What we have found through our work is that often times, financial education is not offered or delivered to persons with disabilities, particularly persons with significant disabilities.
>> And, we are excited to be able to expand the opportunities on financial education, and really looking at financial wellness for persons with disabilities. And as we look at financial wellness, we need to make sure that we understand that difference -- the difference between banking, the difference between creating our budgets. Which is an appropriate but -- budget, what is not an appropriate budget. We need to look at spending habits and looking at the needs versus wants, and bringing this to individuals so that they can be educated to really help them advance up the economic ladder.
>> So, in communities where there are disability advocacy network chapters, NDI will connect the DAN chapter leads, and when we say DAN, that stands for Disability Advocacy Network. The chapter leads to the coalitions, VITA, as well as disability lead organizations that we partner with, and the different markets that Paula had mentioned. The DAN members and NDI partners will determine the training schedule and logistics to be able to provide financial education. The DAN members will use Bank of America's financial education curriculum . They use FDIC's Money Smart curriculum which is a great curriculum to use. The nice thing about using the FDIC's Money Smart curriculum is that it is a curriculum that is flexible to be able to meet the needs of persons with disabilities, in living persons with significant disabilities.
>> DAN members will also have as a guide NDI's tips and tools into delivering financial education to persons with disabilities including persons with significant disabilities. A survey has been distributed to DAN members, and they have shared the number of volunteers that they have available within their region or their area or chapter area. It is shared with us the time of day they are available, and the frequency that they would like to have the training offered. So, the results from those surveys has shown that there are many opportunities here to really be able to engage in this work. And, we really appreciate DAN members for sharing that information.
>> So, the survey also will be shared with our lead contacts so that as you and the DAN members work out the best time and frequency of the trainings, you'll have that information as well. So you know, nothing you have heard about the financial education training and connecting with DAN members and what they will be providing, you might be thinking, I have been interested in starting a financial education program within my organization, or, for the individuals that I serve, but I'm just not sure how this might look.
>> As you know, at National Disability Institute, we have a coalition of organizations across the country with financial education programs within their organizations. So, we have many possibilities and examples. And, we are happy to discuss some of those strategies further with you all. But, I do want to share with you a few examples. So possibly, you are a CRP, or CommunityRehabilitation Program, a center for Independent living or other disability organization. You can also be one of the America's job centers, Houston be known as the one-stop career centers. -- Used to be known as the one-stop career centers. You could offer a brown bag lunch, where individuals can come in, bring their own lunch, and at the end, a DAN member could potentially offer a financial education class to them. >> Another example would be, if you have a self advocate group, or a family group that comes together on a regular basis. That could create additional opportunities to have a guest speaker or guest presenter come in, have a DAN member, provide one of the key modules that is identified within FDIC's Money Smart curriculum, and that with the something that you would be able to coordinate with members. There are many other opportunities that we can look at. To help make these connections for both DAN members, as well as our partners.
>> Another strategy to share with you, though, is that I think it is really important for us to look at students who are in transition, transitioning from school to work, transition from school to college, or what ever that transition might look like for them. Through our work, we has found -- have found that when outside partners provide financial education to students, transitioning students, we have found that it won, eases the fear of banking, and two, we have found that it opens the door to individuals increasing their knowledge and awareness by having an outside person from the financial institution provide that financial education.
>> On the other side, if you are a tax coalition or a community-based organization that works on asset development strategies, this could be an additional group of volunteers to using our financial education class, if you do use FDIC's Money Smart curriculum. The possibilities, again, are endless. The best strategies for your organization and area would be determined by you and delete DAN member -- the lead DAN member in your area.
>> One thing to note is that if each of the reasons, the number of DAN members able to volunteer does vary in each community. Another key thing that I would like to share is that April is national financial literacy month. So, we hope to have some of these opportunities up and running sometime in April, if possible. At the National Disability Institute, we will be celebrating national financial literacy month and partnering with Bank of America on some other opportunities that month as well. So, if you're interested in those, please be sure to let us know and we can get this going.
>> Paula, would you like to add anything else before we go on to the next opportunity?
>> No, I really think you covered everything very nicely, Michael. I appreciate that. And truly, we are really excited here at Bank of America within the Disability Advocacy Network to work with all of you as community partners across the country. So, we look forward to Michael connecting us to you. >> Great. Thanks. I skipped an extra slide there. Great. Thank you, Paula. So, the second volunteer opportunity that we will be partnering with the Disability Advocacy Network members at Bank of America on is to provide disability awareness training. And as many of you know who have been long- time partners with the National Disability Institute , disability awareness training has been a piece that our partners have asked for, particularly from the tax VITA coalitions that we work with, as well as our asset development partners. And so, this opportunity in pieces awareness for VITA volunteers , tax and asset building coalitions, debt management partners, individual development accounts, providers and financial education providers. Again, in communities where DAN has a chapter presents , NDI will connect the DAN chapter leads to the coalition VITA meets or asset building partner leads in that area. DAN members will use NDI's disability awareness training. This was a training that was created last year and has been updated for this year through support from Bank of America last year . And this training was created. And it has been used by tax coalitions across the country. I know that we are in the middle of tax season here, so for VITA and tax coalitions would like to have disability awareness training for your volunteers, please note that we will be pushing this out in the summer and fall months. We know that VITA volunteers are trained in the fall months, and so, this would be a great addition to be able to add to have a volunteer coming to be able to provide the disability awareness training.
>> But, if you would like to have your staff trained or coalition members trained over the summer months, that definitely could potentially be a possibility. That would be something to work out with the lead for DAN in your area when we make that connection. This is also a great opportunity for individual development account providers, financial education providers, debt management counselors to be trained on disability awareness as they serve customers with disabilities. We received a great response from various organizations who are asking for disability awareness so that they can better support customers with disabilities.
>> And so, it's really exciting now to have additional trainers that will be able to support this activity across the country. Again, the possibilities of offering this volunteer opportunity is endless. It is something that you and the DAN chapter's wood court meet and work out when it comes to the logistical pieces and the frequency of the training. All right, Paula, anything else to add on this opportunity?
>> No, not at all. Again, we are equally as excited about this opportunity as well.
>> Great.
>> We have actually done a lot of disability awareness training within the company, so certainly, it is something that is very part of our priority here.
>> Great. Thank you. And you know, a question did come in and I really appreciate it. I use acronyms quite a bit, and I apologize. VITA, when we talk about a VITA volunteer, we are talking about the Volunteer IncomeTax Assistant program, where volunteers are trained to provide free tax preparation services and to low to moderate income individuals. If so, VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance.And I apologize for using the acronym. So now, you have heard about these two opportunities and you may be wondering, okay, how do I connect and what do I do next? We have put together some steps here for you to look at and follow. Mac if you're interested in being connected with DAN volunteers, eight volunteers -- Disability Advocacy Network volunteers at Bank of America with your community please send an e-mail to my colleague Andrew Joseph at [email protected].
>> Also share with us your preference of training. I would like to ask, if you could come in the subject line of your e-mail, please use Disability Advocacy Network volunteer connection. The PowerPoint is going to be available for everyone right after the event, so, you have this information. And so, Andrew will be taking this information. We have this great spreadsheet that we have created with Bank of America that has all partners included, and will add that to the spreadsheet.
>> Step two would be an e-mail introduction from NDI that will connect you with the league DAN volunteer in your area -- with the lead DAN volunteer in your area. We will potentially schedule a conference call with the three of us, NDI and both of you to look at individual opportunities, preference and things like that. Step three will be for you to connect with the DAN leaders to look at the training schedules, event locations and other training logistics that you would need to be able to implement this opportunity to provide financial education and disability awareness.
>> And then, the final step would be to complete a post evaluation, a post about you wish and that we will submit to you and you would submit those back to us at the National Disability Institute. At NDI, as well as at Bank of America, we are here to provide support in making these connections and make sure that this is a positive experience for everyone involved. And so, you can definitely reach out to myself, or to Andrew as we go through this process.
>> So I know that we have covered a lot of information here in 30 min. So what I would like to do is to go through and answer any questions that you might have. And so, Nakia, will you be fielding those questions?
>> Hey, I had one that came in from Brian and he wanted to know, how does he find out who his area’s DAN contact is?
>> Great question, Brian. So, from the previous slide, you can follow these steps and reach out to Andrew Joseph and connect with him, and then what we will do is look at your preferences, and then we'll make a connection with the lead DAN member in your area. We have three staff members who -- or, to staff members will be assisting me in making these connections, depending on your area. Enter Joseph will be making connections for a few of the cities. I will be taking on the majority of the cities, and then our colleagues, Katie Metz will also be assisting in making a connection for you. In your area.
>> Great. Any other questions? Nakia?
>> No, that is all of the questions that I got.
>> Okay. I have one that came in. It was asking about the timeframe. So, that's a great question. So, looking at the timeframe and making the connection. So, once we get the information from each of you, then we will go back and connect with the DAN partners , check their availability and get a meeting scheduled and make that e-mail connection. We do hope that if there are groups that are interested in starting up a program, sometime in April, financial education classes, and if it works for the trim members in your area, we definitely -- if it works for the DAN members in your area, we definitely would like to get that going sooner rather than later. So you can let us know how soon you would like to get started in getting these opportunities going, and then we will be sure to share that with the DAN lead whenever that initial connection is made.
>> So, there is complete flexibility on that. So, the other question that came through was asking about if the training one-time presentation or ongoing. And that is a great question. So, that is something that you would be able to coordinate and work out. That goes back to the training logistics to be able to work out with the DAN members in your area. DAN members in different areas have shared their availability. Some might have a large number of volunteers, so some areas said once a week, some said once a month, some said once a quarter, depending on the trainer. If you look at FDIC's Money Smart, there are 10 modules that are a part of it. Of course, each of those modules may not be relevant to the audience. So for example, if I am working with a group of individuals who have a significant disability, let's say I may not be accessing a 401(k) due to the resource limits attached to the public benefits of service, I may not offer that particular module to that group. But, I might be working with another group and 401(k)s are an option within their employment setting. So, I can offer that module. So, you and the DAN leads will be able to look at how often you want to offer the training, which modules to train, and to be able to go through.
>> Paula, would you like to add anything else to that question?
>> No, I think you covered it fine.
>> Okay.
>> No, definitely, the whole concept is flexibility. And it is a relationship between the DAN chapter and the community partners. And we will all work together to meet the needs that are out there.
>> Yes. Great. And then another question came in about how to become trained volunteers. And I'm thinking that might be a Bank of America question , to our partners that are on from one of those local chapters. So, that is a great question. So we will be doing a series of webinars for DAN members in your region. And your receipt that. The notice will be going out to the chapter leads either today or first of next week. We are looking at the branding items, how do we cope some things. So, that is kind of, we're looking at that. We will start this series of webinars. They will be webinars where the content will be the same to each of them. So, let's say, for example, we have 50 volunteers in your area within your chapter, all of them do not need to attend the same one. It could be based on their schedule, when they are available, they will, and we will go over all of the training materials, go over the tips and tools and a will have all of those materials that they will be able to use. So, I hope that answers that question. All right. Great.
>> Are there any other questions? All right, I think that we got most of the questions here. So, I would like to say before we close out the webinar, I would like to say a special thank you to Bank of America , and particularly Bank of America's Disability Advocacy Network and to Paula Kelly for this opportunity to expand awareness and educate persons with disabilities on the importance of financial wellness. I would also like to thank Andrew Joseph with the National Disability Institute in his support of this project. And I would also like to thank Nakia Matthews who is our technology group -- guru for assistance on this project as well. I greatly appreciate the support. Finally, if you have any additional questions after the webinar, please feel free to contact me. Here is my contact information. My e-mail address is [email protected] well as my phone number, which is 727-278- 1352. 727-278-1352. So, with that, no additional questions have come in. So, thank you again for participating, and Paula, and last words?
>> Just, thank you for the opportunity and again, thank you to all of the DAN chapter members and leaders who were on the call with us this afternoon as well. And again, we look forward to working with all of you.
>> All right, thank you, everyone. And have a great weekend.
>> Thank you.
>> [ Event Concluded ]