Hello my name is Paula Forbes and I am a reentry support partner with my way out. I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Constance Alberts from bank on. I met her at the CRC which is the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center where she is a very fun person. We hold a Class and program at CRC called Building the path to Success. Where we teach financial literacy to justice impacted individuals. Miss Constance brought in Bank On and taught them how to open up a bank account, how to remove that initial fear and bias around banking. We find that the participants at the CRC really gravitate towards her. We really love and appreciate Miss Constance Alberts, keep up the good work Bank On!

Hi my name is Brittany Thome I am a manager with National Disability Institute. I work around financial empowerment for people with disabilities and Bank On of Greater Milwaukee has been so instrumental in creating an inclusive program for all people to be part of. Especially people with disabilities who may not traditionally have been included in financial stability initiatives and Bank On is always so intentional about including them.

Hi my name is Anne Fury I currently work at CIBC Bank which I’m retiring from! I started getting involved with Bank On since they started in Milwaukee. I chose to be with them because of the importance of having a safe bank account, of understanding banking, of having control of their money. I see this with Constance Alberts dedication. She truly wants to help and make people’s lives better. When people have bank accounts and understand banking and are not afraid of banking, they tend to live better lives. Working at the bank we see people come in that don’t have an account to start, we get them started and open their first accounts, then eventually they move on to loans and we begin this relationship. They become a bank client and it’s such a blessing to see that.

Hi my name is Christopher I am a financial coach and income tax manager for Riverworks Development Corporation. Over the years Bank On has assisted with helping a lot of taxpayers who didn’t have a bank account open their first bank account through their programming. People are now able to receive money without being worried their money might get stolen or being taken advantage of. There’s predatory programs out there and not having a full understanding of how the fintech world works when it comes to banking can be hard. Most unbanked people don’t have a bank account because they don’t trust banks. Bank On helps bring the customer and the bank together, where they can help each other and banks can rebuild their trust within communities.

I’m Bethany Sanchez and I work for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council. For the last 25 years I have led the Fair Lending Program at the Fair Housing Council. I work to ensure that all creditworthy borrowers have equal access to fairly priced loan products. A lot of other things come into play with that, I get to work with lots of residents and people from neighborhood organizations and the home buyer counseling agencies and credit agencies and and banks. I work a lot on the Community Reinvestment Act and helping banks to fulfill their obligations under CRA as we call it. That’s been a really great opportunity to connect with banks through the Bank On coalition. To serve justice impacted individuals and disabled communities, we understand what their needs are. Then to be able to translate that to banks, their personnel and advocates in these banks.

Hello my name is Corey Jones, I am a branch manager with BMO on Fond Du Lac Ave in Milwaukee WI. I just wanted to give a shout out to Bank On, specifically Constance for everything you do in the community. Helping your clients make real financial progress (that’s our motto at BMO) you guys live the same motto! Thank you for all the financial advice that I’ve personally received from Bank On, we thank you so much.

My name is Veron Gray, I am the Director of Community Relations with The Equitable Bank and it’s been great working with Constance. Through our partnership with Bank On we were able to start our checking account that’s guaranteed to individuals that could not have gotten a checking account at other banks. That has been great to help those individuals within the community.  Also, each year in the month of April it’s we-teach-A-child-to-Read-or-Save month. We love going into the schools and teaching the children about savings and that has also been great! I just want to say congratulations to Bank On and to Constance for the great work that they are doing in the community.