Latest News at Events at ByDesign

Financial Firsts Milestone and Recognition
(posted 8/7/07)
ByDesign's work in the foster care transitional youth community was recognized in a national inventory of financial education for foster youth.

The report, titled Connected by 25: Financing Asset Building and Financial Education Programs for Youth Transitioning out of Foster Care devotes a full page (p. 27) to work we have been doing and the efforts of our regional advisory committees to raise funds to support the initiative.

For more information, check out the report at: www.financeproject.org/publications/FinLitAssetBuild_SB.pdf

In addition, in April, Laura McGrew, creator of Financial Firsts and ByDesign's head of Education, was awarded California Jump$tart's award for "Personal Financial Literacy Leadership." The California Jump$tart Coalition works to improve the personal financial literacy of California's youth. In July, ByDesign reached our 1,000th foster youth with this award winning program!

Below: Laura McGrew receiving California Jump$tart's award from Norm Greenbaum, Jump$tart board member on April 26, 2007 in San Francisco.

ByDesign Thanks Valley Yellow Pages
(posted 8/7/07)
The Valley Yellow Pages has generously donated 38 ads to ByDesign in their 2007-2008 Fresno directory. This is the second year in a row that the company has given space to ByDesign. We greatly appreciate this in-kind donation as it helps us get the word out about our services to the entire Central Valley.

ByDesign Financial Solutions Wins Beacon Award 
On November 7, 2006, ByDesign Financial Solutions' new young adult program, Financial Firsts, was honored with the Beacon Award from the California Credit Union League's Richard Myles Johnson Foundation.

The prestigious Beacon Award formally recognizes individuals, credit unions, and other organizations making a difference in their communities with outreach efforts focused on financial literacy.

The award is a tribute to ByDesign's exceptional effort to provide financial literacy to foster youth throughout California, having recently presented the Financial Firsts workshop to the 500th foster youth.

For more information on Financial Firsts, click here. 

Below: ByDesign President and CEO, Peter Lake and ByDesign's Senior Vice President of Education with the Beacon Award at the Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, November, 2006.

ByDesign Participates in Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and American Express Research Study on the Effectiveness of Credit Counseling
(posted 6/21/06)
ByDesign Financial Solutions (doing business as Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Los Angeles) is one of 10 credit counseling agencies nationwide to participate in a research study conducted by the Georgetown University Credit Research Center for American Express and CFA. In a report announcing the results of the first phase of the study, Georgetown recently announced the following conclusions:

• The act of seeking credit counseling is a valuable "early warning" indicator of financial trouble.
• Telephone and face-to-face counseling appear to generate equivalent outcomes.
• Creditworthiness (as measured by changes in credit scores two years after their initial counseling session) improved for debt management participants.

Researchers say that the study focuses on the experience of consumers at agencies (like ByDesign) that emphasize client education, so the results may not reflect those of the average agency clients nationwide. The study is ongoing.

American Express is providing the financial support for this study. For more information on the study results, please click here.