Bank On Advocacy Map: Tool to Fight Inequity

In 2022, Bank On Greater Milwaukee launched the Advocacy Map to advocate for banking expansion and to improve access to banking in the City of Milwaukee. The Advocacy Map is a live interactive map of the City of Milwaukee along with the location of banks and payday lending stores and their service areas. The map shares local data and the intersectionality of data from the 2020 census including population by race and ethnicity, persons with disabilities, household income, household vehicle access, employment, and linguistical isolation.

Data included in the Advocacy Map includes the 2019 American Community Survey.

“The Advocacy Map is a tool for citizens, banks, and decision makers to understand the financial landscape of Milwaukee and help showcase the financial pitfalls and traps for low-income Milwaukeeans.”

-Kate Madison, Advocacy Map Coalition Committee Leader

¿Cuál es la finalidad del mapa?

Bank On Greater Milwaukee began working on the Advocacy Map in 2020 to create a tool that could display the gaps in accessing financial products and services. It also serves as a tool for financial institutions to better understand which populations are being underserved, and help banks and financial institutions fulfill their obligations as partners and through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

In particular, the Advocacy Map highlights the number of unbanked individuals, where they are, and how low-income individuals are most negatively impacted by a lack of banking access. Individuals who are unbanked are defined as personas sin una relación bancaria que incluya una cuenta corriente o una tarjeta de crédito.

The Advocacy Map showcases data such as:

Concentración y ubicación de hogares con ingresos bajos a moderados
Ubicación de las sucursales bancarias dentro de la ciudad de Milwaukee
Where payday lenders are in the City of Milwaukee
Concentraciones de aislamiento lingüístico
Hogares sin acceso para vehículos
Interseccionalidad entre todas las métricas, como los hogares de ingresos bajos a moderados y la falta de opciones bancarias.

Implications for this data include evidence to support increased funding and outreach to help more individuals become banked and access other financial products and services that help them become financially healthy.

¿Para quién es el mapa?

Este mapa está dirigido a diversos públicos, entre ellos:

Consumidores que buscan una sucursal bancaria cercana
Consumidores que buscan una cuenta bancaria certificada
Consumidores que buscan comprender el panorama financiero de su comunidad.
Community partners who are looking to understand the needs of low-income individuals as it relates to banking access
Instituciones financieras que buscan abordar la desigualdad
Instituciones financieras que buscan comprender las necesidades de la comunidad.
Instituciones financieras interesadas en colaborar con Bank On Greater Milwaukee
Decision makers and elected officials looking to understand Milwaukee data related to banking and low-income individuals
Los responsables de la toma de decisiones y los funcionarios electos que buscan crear políticas

“This map shows many financial desserts across Milwaukee y es una herramienta para combatir la desigualdad”.”

Constance Alberts, Directora del Programa Bank On Greater Milwaukee

Consideraciones futuras

The Advocacy Map will be updated with new data as well as other relevant data as it becomes available. Bank On Greater Milwaukee is working with its partners to use the data and information found in the Advocacy Map to inform access to banking. Our Coalition members are working on strategically addressing issues in banking access, and some of our next steps will be to address guidelines and the reduction of barriers that will help vulnerable people access banking products and services based on their needs.

¿Cómo se creó?

Bank On Greater Milwaukee started working on this tool after identifying the need for data to understand and showcase the number of unbanked Milwaukeeans. The Advocacy Map idea was overseen by Constance Alberts, Bank On Greater Milwaukee Manager. Together, Bank On worked with stakeholders and members to create the Advocacy Workgroup to oversee this work. This Advocacy Workgroup included Kate Madison, Dan Krohn, and Brittany Thome.

Bank On Greater Milwaukee strategically met with many groups in the formulation and planning process including persons with disabilities, diverse groups, economic development groups, banks, and others. Special thanks to the Coalition for their work and all of the over 50+ groups and individuals therein that participated in helping make the Advocacy Map a possibility.

Cómo puedes ayudar

Share this blog post with your networks!
Spread the word and share the Bank On Advocacy Map using our Social Media Resource page
Link the Bank On Advocacy Map to your website
Join Bank On Greater Milwaukee as a partner to help support their work
Volunteer with the Advocacy Map Coalition

¿Tienes alguna pregunta o te interesa participar?

Email Constance Alberts, Bank On Greater Milwaukee Program Manager at constance@uedawi.org!