STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Free “Debt Reduction and Credit Building” sessions are being offered Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11, at The Hunger Coalition in Bellevue.

The Blaine County Charitable Foundation is offering the workshops in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Money Fit and The Hunger Coalition in honor of Financial Literacy Month.

Sessions will be offered in English from 4 to 6 p.m. and in Spanish from 6 to 8 p.m. Childcare and dinner will be provided.

Participants will learn:

    …Effective debt management and credit-building strategies

    …How to understand key financial behaviors and their impact on the future

    …Insights into debt settlement, bankruptcy and their consequences.

“Although employment and market factors will always keep many in our community struggling month to month, we often see our clients turning to high interest payday loans and credit cards to manage their expenses. And of course, the resulting effect is a mountain of debt and/or poor credit that will keep households buried longer than necessary,” said Maira Conlago, family care manager at BCCF.

Money Fit offers a variety of debt and credit services and financial education. It is a HUD-approved housing counseling agency. The nonprofit also offers a variety of videos and helpful articles regarding debt and credit at Moneyfit.org.

The organization offered debt consolidating help to Debra Bates, one of BCCF’s clients.

“I was really struggling to pay my bills,” recounted Bates. “I got to such a point that I was in so much debt that I didn't know how l was going to pay for groceries, or pay these companies, or how I was going to live. Thank heavens BCCF helped me with my rent so that I could pay down some of my debt and I learned how to consolidate my debt so I could have a lower payment and have some money to live on”

Sign up for the workshops at maira@blainecf.org or by contacting Maira Conlago at 208-244-5205, extension 701.

Blaine County Charitable Fund provides grants to residents who live and/or work in Blaine County who lack other resources to obtain financial assistance. It has distributed over $1.7

million in emergency assistance to one in 11 Blaine County residents since the organization’s creation in March 2020.

BCCF currently operates three core services:

• Housing Stability Assistance: Emergency rent assistance, first/last/deposit assistance, and eviction mediation settlements

• Gap Assistance: Childcare assistance and downpayment assistance

• Rapid relief: Other critical emergency needs, including but not limited to: expenses related to health, ability to work, maintaining a safe living environment and temporary emergency hotel stays.

For more information, visit https://www.blainecf.org/, call 208-244-5205, or stop by BCCF's Hailey offices located at 111 N. 1st Ave, Suite 2J.