Achieving Financial Independence

FreshMinistries strives to improve the lives of our youth and their lower-income working families by partnering with programs, both publicly and privately funded, that help convert their hard earned dollars into assets to break the cycle of poverty. We partnered with Managing Your Money, the Jacksonville Prosperity Campaign and the Individual Development Account programs that promote savings for home ownership, secondary education and business entrepreneurship.

This three-step program helped those with less make more:

1. Managing Your Money! – FreshMinistries and its community partners provide an eight-part money management course that covers topics such as the family budget, fixing your credit, using bank accounts, saving for the future and achieving financial goals. Using the Money Smart program, a person can quickly learn how to better manage their money and take steps towards achieving their financial dreams.

2. Getting Back The Money You’ve Already Earned – FreshMinistries is a partner in the Jacksonville Prosperity Campaign, a program that provides lower-income workers with free income tax return preparation by volunteers knowledgeable of the details of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). EITC gives substantial refunds to lower income workers who meet certain government guidelines.

3. Multiply Your Money – Individual Development Accounts – FreshMinistries and its community partners offer a matched savings program that provides two dollars for every dollar saved. As a result, an eligible person who saves $2,000 over two years would receive an additional $4,000 towards one of three major life goals, buying a home, going to college or starting a business. There are income requirements and the account is restricted to those three goals.


Please note: Although many past participants' accounts are still active, this is a past program and is no longer a part of FreshMinistries' current set of initiatives.