2023 was a year of change. Our country was trying to move on from, and even forget, COVID, while many in our community were and are still dealing with its impacts. Our members were their creative, resourceful, and whole selves while navigating an ever-changing world.
We, as an organization, tried to help with that navigation by using American Rescue Plan funds, granted to us by the City of Durham and the Oak Foundation, to help Members clear some of the housing debt that they acquired due to COVID.
This money helped our Members stay in their homes or clear debt to move somewhere more affordable and also highlighted the need for longer-term stability. We also hired an advocacy manager to design a plan of where our advocacy should and could go, including the start of tenant unions.
This will put power back in the hands of the people most affected by the issues of housing and financial instability. We also worked towards closing the racial wealth gap through our First Time Homebuyers program, in which our Members’ savings were matched by Metlife for Durham and Town of Chapel Hill for Chapel Hill and put towards a first home.
We believe in a pathway from being unhoused to homeownership and want to support that through providing information, gathering documents, and providing funds for down payments. We are looking forward to supporting our CEF community in 2024.
The Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) is excited to announce that, as part of our organization’s 5-year strategic plan, we now offer 20% matches on savings goals for Members enrolled in our Safe Savings Account Program! CEF’s Safe Savings Account Program helps Members save for personal goals, such as school fees, security deposits, or emergencies.
Poor and working-class individuals who lack access to traditional banks often face exploitation by predatory lenders and unfair banking practices, like payday/pawn shop loans, check cashing services and high-interest credit cards. These alternative banking institutions frequently trap vulnerable community members in a cycle of debt and poverty.
When Members engage with CEF’s Safe Saving Program, they open Individual Development Accounts (IDA), which require no minimum balance, have no fees, and do not impact debt or credit history. No ID or proof of citizenship is necessary to open an account; however, a state-issued ID is required to cash checks. CEF can also write checks directly to vendors if needed.
To receive their 20% match, Members participate in eight 2:1 financial coaching sessions with CEF Advocates. We tailor these coaching classes to Members needs, aiming to boost their confidence in managing finances and ultimately empowering them to achieve financial freedom. Coupling savings goals and financial education with the IDA has proven effective in increasing short-term savings and long-term economic stability for working-class people across the country since the 1990s.
Don’t miss out on this chance to transform your financial future. Sign up today for CEF’s Safe Savings Account Program and start on the path to financial freedom with the support you deserve!
The Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) is an organization with offices in Chapel Hill and Durham that works to combat the racial wealth gap in these areas. With various programs, including the Safe Savings program (offers Members* the chance to save money in an account at CEF with the opportunity to earn a 15% match) and the Laptop Savings program (allows Members to purchase an affordable desktop or laptop from the Kramden Institute), along with online financial coaching sessions and resources related to housing, CEF strives to equip Members of our community with the tools they may need to achieve financial independence. At the heart of CEF’s work is a housing-first approach*, a commitment to community building, and supporting, not helping, those who seek out our services.
As an Advocate*, you will be working with Members to accomplish their goals in hour-long meetings on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Meetings can range from discussing housing options locally and applying to jobs, to creating flyers for Members and their business and helping them find childcare for their kids. Advocates are expected to volunteer for 2 hours a week (meaning they will be scheduled for 2 meetings per week) and attend community calls and trainings meant to advance their understanding of issues pertaining to racial equity and the specific needs of Members.
*Member – an individual who becomes a part of CEF through a one-time orientation. *Advocate – an individual who volunteers at CEF and meets with Members alongside another Advocate. *Housing-first – an approach that prioritizes finding permanent housing for people experiencing or on the verge of experiencing homelessness.
In partnership with consultants Jaclyn Gilstrap and Hope Tyson from A Visual Approach, CEF’s strategic plan is presented using an adaptation of an “Objectives and Key Results (OKR) Framework.”
At the highest level of the strategic plan, the Big Goal and Key Contribution articulates CEF’s vision of community and its mission. These components are the guiding light of the strategic plan and connect the various areas of CEF’s work to the organization’s mission and its greater purpose in the community. In addition to the Big Goal (CEF’s Vision Statement), the survey data showed that Staff, Members, Volunteers, Board, and Community Leaders across the board saw an essential part of CEF’s efforts to be centered around Building Joyful Community. It was mentioned so often that it has risen to the level of the Big Goal. It is a complement to and expansion of the Big Goal, a doubling down and a re-commitment to this essential component of the organization’s character and culture.
Big Goal:Ending the Racial Wealth Gap, Empowering Community
Key Contribution (CEF’s Mission):Cultivate opportunities, assets, and communities that support the alleviation of homelessness and poverty
In order to achieve the Key Contribution, CEF believes that it must work towards all of the Objectives outlined in the strategic plan. The Objectives are significant and concrete, and there is a word attached to each that explains not only what the goal is but how it should be achieved (responsive, strong, adaptable, impactful, growth). As a whole, the Objectives make up the key areas of CEF’s work. The relationship between them is illustrated by the visual framework (FIG 1).
As we move forward in the direction of 2025, our organization is sure to experience many shifts and changes. This document is meant to help us navigate those changes, assisting us during times when decision-making feels hard and priorities are overwhelming. We thank each and every voice that contributed to this collective vision for CEF.
2021 was another difficult year. With the ups and downs of feeling like life was getting closer to pre-pandemic times and then going back into lockdowns and separation, CEF offered stability and companionship to Members. We stayed committed to remaining open, enforcing a vaccination or testing mandate for all staff and volunteers and continuing with COVID safety protocols to ensure that Members, staff, and Advocates could continue to meet safely.
In this report you will learn more about CEF’s activities throughout 2021 — including information about our support of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, the creation of the House Us Now coalition, and the joy experienced through the Share the Love: Art Show. In addition, you will hear stories from Members and Advocates–uplifting the hope they experienced as they worked alongside CEF to ensure that everyone in our community has access to safe, affordable housing and the opportunity for financial freedom.
As you read through this report I hope you will feel that hope too, that you can see the potential hiding just below the surface. Thank you for being a part of this incredible community and for continuing to offer support as we learn to adapt to a new reality. We are so grateful for each and every contribution. Thank you for supporting this work!
As CEF has grown and blossomed over the years, we have been reminded, time and again, of the importance of being nimble and adaptive as we grow. As you will see in this report, 2020 was no different. In the enclosed stories you will learn how CEF responded to COVID-19 through articles and reflections from CEF’s staff. The report also shares more information about our quantitative impact and our year-end financials. This report is dedicated to the CEF Members who moved on in 2020, we hope you will hold them in your hearts and minds as you read.
CEF is excited to share the first episode of the Time + Talents podcast. In this episode, CEF Advocates Lily Levin and Lizzy Kramer interview a number of people involved in housing in Durham County to help listeners learn more about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people’s housing situations and what services are available for people who may need support.
This podcast was arranged by Durham Office & Community Organizer Rosa Green.
We hope you enjoy the podcast. Please share with your networks.
Time + Talents is CEF’s member-driven advocacy platform in Durham. Members chose the theme of this podcast and will continue to be involved in choosing future themes to ensure that the podcast is relevant to their needs and interests.
As CEF has grown and blossomed over the years, we have been reminded, time and again, of the importance of being nimble and adaptive as we grow. As you will see in this report, 2019 was no different. In the enclosed stories you will learn more about CEF’s deepening advocacy work; read about the programs we’ve built and strengthened; hear directly from Members, Advocates, and Staff about their connection to CEF; and see our quantitative impact.
Graduating Senior Advocates Gianna, Hayes, and Grace
With the return of warm air and long evenings, we at CEF Durham are forced to say goodbye to our Senior Advocates as they graduate from Duke and head out into the world. These Advocates have contributed hundreds of hours, given an immeasurable quantity of energy, and formed CEF in more ways than we can put into words. As they left CEF, a few Senior Advocates offered up some parting words to share with the CEF community.
Grace Mok joined CEF as a summer intern through Duke Engage. Years later, Grace has completed over 120 CEF Member meetings, shaped Advocate training curriculum, and served as Special Projects Coordinator. Grace shared, “CEF has given me a different vision of how organizations can run and change for the better. Shared leadership and whole personhood are not ideas that all organizations strive for. I hope I can work for an organization as passionate and caring as CEF has been.” Further, Grace explained the ways in which CEF will stay with her as she moves away from Duke and Durham. “Some of the gifts are very concrete — a mug that a Member made himself that I put my silverware in now in my room. Some of the gifts are ephemeral — stories, advice, smiles. I am thinking about “coaching” as a lifestyle tool and I am thinking about community. I am so glad I have been able to build as many relationships as I have and had the opportunity to touch as many lives as I have, to learn with and from folks about so much.”
Gianna Giordano joined CEF during her first semester at Duke, and has since completed over 90 CEF Member meetings and served as Employment Services Coordinator on the student leadership team. Throughout her career at Duke and as an Advocate at CEF, Gianna applied what she was learning in the classroom to her work at CEF, and vice versa! “I have a huge appreciation for the way CEF recognizes that it is traumatic to constantly have to interact with a system that was designed to ensure that you lose. At Duke, I’ve spent a lot of time studying the child welfare system and other social policy issues, and I have observed that this trauma-informed mindset is missing from many discussions about human service delivery systems. When dealing with complex problems involving societal structures, many people look right past this. They see unfair policies and widespread injustice, but they do not recognize that the affected populations experience cumulative trauma that permeates every aspect of their daily lives. From my experiences at CEF, I’ve learned that there is not only a need for structural change but to be with people, support them, and help them recover,” Gianna explained. In her personal life, Gianna shared that, “CEF has encouraged me to value genuine friendships and relationship-driven service work, but it has also taught me to pay close attention to power structures that perpetuate injustice and push against them in creative ways. CEF Members have inspired me by their resilience, tenacity, and selflessness, and CEF staff and advocates have inspired me by their hard work, passion, and constant willingness to learn. The bonds and friendships I have formed with Members and other Advocates these past four years will motivate me to challenge structural injustices for the rest of my life.”
“CEF has been the longest-standing commitment I have had at Duke. I will never forget the Activities Fair on the East Campus Quad, where I saw Liz at a club booth and went to chat with her. I signed up for CEF that day and enrolled in the House Course for the fall semester of my freshman year,” shared graduating senior Hayes McManemin. Since then, Hayes has completed over 65 meetings with CEF Members, worked at CEF’s on-site office hours at the Families Moving Forward shelter, and served as Communications Coordinator on the student leadership team. Hayes shared, “In my opinion, CEF played an integral role in helping me decide what career trajectory I wanted to pursue. Now, I am sure I want to work in a non-profit setting where I can interact with those for whom I am advocating, and have a chance to build meaningful relationships with those same people. I have learned so, SO much about empathy and have gained so much perspective about the ridiculously privileged position I am in. This organization provided me a different way to engage with the Durham community and learn about this city outside of the Duke bubble. I love CEF very much and am going to be very sad at my last office hours!”
We are going to miss our seniors so much, and wish them all the best in taking what they have learned at CEF out into their new careers, cities, and communities. Wherever they go, we know they will make a positive impact in the lives of those around them, always remembering that all people are creative, resourceful, and whole.
“Stay in school, stay in the Movement.” — Reverend Liz Theoharis of the Poor People’s Campaign,
On the first weekend in March, CEF Advocates from UNC and Duke put aside their rivalries, to come together and co-host the 2nd annual Summit on Homelessness and Poverty! The three-day summit brought together over 100 students from 25 schools from across the country to share experiences, workshop ideas, and learn from longtime local community organizers. Their collective goal was to continue to grow a national coalition of student organizations dedicated to dismantling systems that perpetuate hunger, homelessness, and poverty.
“The cost of poverty, broadly, is so much higher than the cost of paying people fairly.” —Jill Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem
Last year, students at Brown University held the inaugural Summit on Homelessness and Poverty that brought together a coalition of student organizations from across the country dedicated to dismantling systems that perpetuate homelessness and poverty. In the 8 months of planning, the summit vision truly came together when Megan Miller and Olivia Simpson proposed that the theme of the Summit be “Abundance,” with the idea that the communities we work within have an abundance of love, resilience, and (as CEF likes to say) people who are “creative resourceful and whole”— and therefore our work should be about uplifting and celebrating that abundance. Hosting this summit meant that we got to help to create a unique space for students to reflect on and share about the abundance in their own communities.
“Joy can be an act of revolution!” —George Barrett, The Marian Cheek Jackson Center
The weekend was a tremendous labor of love. A true test of the commitment to the work we do, as well as of our ability to open ourselves up to new forms of the pursuit of social justice, which is important perspective when you find yourself debating seemingly trivial things like the number of coffee cups to order and the most fitting genre of music for the welcome reception. We succeeded in bringing together students from different regions of the country involved in all kinds of anti-poverty and homelessness work, effectively connecting one another to a network of students engaged in demanding work that requires the solidarity and accountability that community offers. I’m especially proud of the fundraising we chased extra hard with the goal of lowering financial barriers for folks to participate.
“If you don’t know you don’t know, but once you know, I’m going to hold you accountable.” — Andrea Hudson, Community Bail Fund
We created sessions around Race Policing and Poverty, Vulnerable Populations, Public Health, Urban Renewal & Displacement (watch the video below), Social Service Gaps and How We Fill Them, Advocating for Policy Change to facilitate a space where students could share, learn, and grow from peers. Hosting the summit also gave us the opportunity to spotlight longtime community organizations and organizers who shared their brilliant wisdom and experiences of organizing in the South.
We are so grateful for our community partners and all of the students who are working alongside their communities to fight for justice through the celebration abundance. It was an honor to host the 2nd annual summit and we’re excited to continue to build the Student Coalition Against Homelessness & Poverty.
