Brooklyn Plans is starting a financial empowerment revolution right here in Brooklyn. We take underused or vacant real estate and convert it into a recreation center/cool lounge/public library for your finances. Every month we visit a different neighborhood and create a space for community in financial matters. In April we partnered with Shoestring Press in Crown Heights where we were open to the community 2 days/week. In May we are partnering with Realty Collective in Red Hook, a financially underserved neighborhood that does not host either a financial empowerment center or a Single Stop site, two financial empowerment resources commonly found in underserved neighborhoods. We're excited to offer events to the community 4 days/week.

Our focus are financially underserved millennials or 20 and 30-somethings. Financial planners generally ignore us because we don't have any assets and financial education nonprofit programming isn't relevant. We are saddled with student loans debt and many of us entered the labor force when job prospects were the worse they had been in decades. Our generation needs help! We offer relevant workshops and classes that are open to the whole community on topics like finding the perfect rental, how to talk about money with your partner, student loan counseling, credit card hacking and even a finance yoga class (balance more than your checkbook).

The grant will help us convert our Red Hook pop-up into a financial community space. Since we'll be offering a mix of workshop style classes with unique events like a "finance jams party*" & financial balance yoga, we'll have to purchase a variety of supplies such as a printer, ink, paper, projector, yoga mats and "bling" for our party. The grant will also help us cover the cost of insurance and electricity to run the space.

*Finance Jams Party has 2 rules

1. Songs about $
2. Dancing