Sparkpoint Center to Open in Fremont

From the City of Fremont

The Fremont Family Resource Center (FRC) and United Way of the Bay Area, along with several new partners, are pleased to announce the official Grand Opening of SparkPoint financial services on Thursday, September 13. The celebration will take place at the Fremont FRC, 39155 Liberty Street, Pacific Room, from 4 – 6 p.m. A short program begins at 4:30 p.m. and the public is invited.

Created by United Way of the Bay Area, SparkPoint Centers are one-stop, financial education centers that offer a full range of services to help families and individuals achieve long-term financial stability. SparkPoint Fremont FRC is the tenth SparkPoint Center and the only one in southern Alameda County.

“With one in five Bay Area families struggling to make ends meet, expanding SparkPoint is an important part of United Way’s efforts to cut poverty in half in the Bay Area by 2020,” said Anne Wilson, CEO of United Way of the Bay Area.

SparkPoint Fremont FRC builds on the wealth of services already provided by the Fremont Family Resource Center, a collaboration of 25 government and nonprofit organizations serving southern Alameda County residents since 1999. The Fremont FRC was a natural place to launch the SparkPoint model in order to offer more robust financial services to the Tri-City community.

SparkPoint Centers bring together some of the area’s most effective programs to deliver integrated services as a single entity. While the concept of a one-stop resource center is not new, SparkPoint improves on previous models through personal financial coaching and bundled services. Every SparkPoint client is paired with a financial coach who helps them create a step-by-step plan to achieve their personal financial goals such as getting out of debt, going back to school or finding a job. SparkPoint coaches encourage clients to take advantage of two or more services at a time which helps clients realize their goals faster. In just three years, SparkPoint results show that clients who use more than one service are three times more likely to reach their goals than clients who used only one.

The Fremont SparkPoint is a collaboration of 13 Bay Area organizations, some of which are located at or near the Fremont FRC, with a few others bringing services onsite. Partners include Alameda County Social Services Agency, Bay Area Legal Aid, Community Child Care Council (4C’s) of Alameda County, East Bay Agency for Children/Fremont Healthy Start, Fremont Adult and Continuing Education, Mission Asset Fund, Opportunity Fund, Project Sentinel, Tri-Cities One-Stop Career Center/EDD – Fremont, Tri-Cities One-Stop Career Center – Ohlone College Network, Tri-City Volunteers Food Bank & Thrift Store, and the United Way of the Bay Area. The lead agency is the City of Fremont Human Services Department, Family Resource Center. All partners use one database system and set of metrics to track client progress.

SparkPoint Fremont FRC provides free services to help South County residents achieve long-term economic success including:

• Financial Education and Coaching
• Credit and Debt Management
• Income Tax Preparation
• Individual Development Accounts (matched savings program)
• Peer Lending Program
• Family Support Coordination
• Screening and Enrollment for Public Benefits
• Job Readiness and Career Counseling
• Adult Education
• Housing Counseling
• Consumer Legal Services

Funders for SparkPoint Fremont FRC are: Y&H Soda Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, Citi and the Oakland/Alameda County Community Action Program.

For more information on SparkPoint services or to RSVP for the September 13 SparkPoint Grand Opening, call SparkPoint Fremont FRC at (510) 574-2020. An RSVP is not required to attend.