FORT MYERS, Fla. (May 15, 2015) –Fifth Third Bank’s eBus, a mobile classroom providing financial services, hosted more than 50 high-school students and their families at the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers’ onsite Boys & Girls Club Renaissance Preserve Unit on April 21.
During the educational event, local representatives from Fifth Third Bank provided attendees with access to offer banking services, credit counseling, affordable-housing counseling, small-business training, savings and budgeting advice, and financial empowerment tools.
The event also hosted the $53,000 Financial Literacy Challenge, sponsored by New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host Dave Ramsey and Fifth Third Bank, for high-school students to test their personal financial knowledge. Any student who scored 100 percent on the online financial literacy quiz offered during the workshop will be eligible to win prizes including one $36,000 college scholarship for a high-school senior, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 scholarship and Toshiba 13.3” Chromebook 2 laptops. Winners will be announced later this month.
Fifth Third Bank’s eBuses, also referred to as Fifth Third Financial Empowerment Mobiles, travel throughout the Bank’s markets to directly provide quality financial services to individuals and neighbors in low- and moderate-income areas and empower them to take control of their financial future. The eBuses are 40-foot retrofitted city buses equipped with onboard computer workstations and Internet connectivity through satellite technology. They are staffed with Fifth Third professionals who are available at tour stops to provide financial education, one-on-one counseling, and access to products and services, if desired.
The first eBus began its tours in 2004. Since then, the number of cities it has visited has increased every year, and nearly 100,000 people have boarded the bus to gain access to financial education and services. In 2011, Fifth Third Bank facilitated the retrofit of a second eBus to reach an even greater number of individuals. The eBus enables Fifth Third to deeply penetrate and serve low- and moderate-income communities and align even more closely its efforts to meet its obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act. In 2014, Fifth Third enabled the public to access online job search and training modules called the Job Seeker’s Toolkit.
The Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers serves as a catalyst for increasing access to safe, stable and sustainable housing and to help develop, preserve and revitalize communities through affordable rental housing. The agency is dedicated to empowering families with the means to become as self-sufficient as possible through its Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) and HOPE VI Community Supportive Services (CSS) programs, encouraging and facilitating movement toward financial independence beyond the need for HACFM services. The HACFM also aims to instill pride and a desire for an enhanced quality of life for families and serves the greater Fort Myers community in a manner that demonstrates professional courtesy, respect and caring, while recognizing the needs and limitations of the mentally and physically disabled, aged and infirmed.
For more information, call 239-332-3825 or visit www.hacfm.org.
