The Power of Partnership: Queens Giving Back to Queens

As published in This Is Queensborough, July 2024 Edition 
Link to edition: https://issuu.com/bqemedia/docs/finaljuly

In many ways, financial stability is the foundation upon which all other goals in life are built: saving for the future, balancing a budget, and building a good credit score all require skills, knowledge, and access that have unfortunately been denied to so many of our neighbors.

Thankfully, efforts are underway to tackle this issue head-on. And it’s all happening right here in Queens.

Headquartered in Briarwood, Samaritan Daytop Village has been serving the Queens community for more than 60 years. Its services include transitional housing, veterans programs, substance use treatment, mental health services, and more.

Recently, they’ve teamed up with several Queens-based banks and branches to offer financial literacy training and workshops to their participants and clients, with the goal of financial security as their north star.

The Queens-based banks that have taken on this urgent issue are Valley Bank, Flagstar Bank, and Chase Bank.

“At Valley, financial well-being is a critical component of health and wellness, and Samaritan Daytop Village shares our mission and understands the importance of financial education,” said Kaitlyn Schillizzi, Corporate Social Responsibility-CRA Officer at Valley Bank. “We are excited to connect with the clients participating in the culinary program, share our knowledge, and be a trusted resource for the participants and the organization.”

Thanks to Valley Bank’s financial support, Samaritan is able to bring not only financial literacy programs to their participants, but also provide workforce training opportunities to those interested in careers in the culinary field.

“Joining forces with community-driven organizations like Samaritan Daytop Village is essential to empowering residents and fostering stronger communities,” said Natasha Castillo, Vice President and Community Manager for Queens and Long Island at JPMorgan Chase. “Our goal is to be the bank for all, and we recognize the importance of supporting the impact of this critical organization in Queens and continue building our partnership to focus on providing essential financial health resources and tools to help residents achieve a brighter financial future.”

Financial security is a crucial element of building overall health and well-being. For those who have experienced homelessness, mental or behavioral health challenges, and other hardships, it can be difficult to obtain the access and information needed to be truly financially secure. And, for those with children, free time is especially limited. That’s why the programming Samaritan is offering together with their bank partners is so necessary. For those with children, banks are offering financial literacy and budgeting sessions for young people. These take place at the same time as their parents, thus eliminating one key barrier – childcare – for those parents who wish to participate.

Across these partnerships, nearly 100 Samaritan clients have participated in these training sessions, moving them a few steps closer to financial security. And Samaritan is just getting started. The organization has plans to build upon these partnerships and bring even more training opportunities to clients across the agency, including to other boroughs.

If your business or organization is interested in partnering with Samaritan to bring programs like this to life, please reach out to Dina Pizzingrillo at [email protected].