Foundation $100K Grant Supports New Online Career and Financial Counseling Tool to Help DC Area Low-Income Families Achieve Financial Independence MCLEAN, Va., June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, a growing number of the DC region's working families are struggling to meet the rising cost of even the most basic necessities such as housing, child care and health care. To help alleviate this problem, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) has announced the availability of the DC region's first and the country's most comprehensive Self-Sufficiency Calculator, an online career and financial counseling tool that will help thousands of the region's most vulnerable families move out of poverty and gain financial independence. The innovative tool is made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Freddie Mac Foundation. "WOW is delighted by the support of the Freddie Mac Foundation in furthering the economic security of the region's families," said Joan Kuriansky, executive director of WOW. "The Self Sufficiency calculator is more than a tool; it offers concrete strategies in moving on a path to prosperity for the whole family while providing benchmarks and outcome information that will inform policy and practice from housing to workforce strategies." WOW's Self-Sufficiency Calculator is designed to help struggling parents compute their earned wages and develop a financial savings plan to meet their families' basic needs. The calculator utilizes the findings from WOW's 2005 report, "The Self-Sufficiency Standard for the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area," which evaluated cost of living and self-sufficiency incomes in the DC region. The report, also funded by the Freddie Mac Foundation, finds that most families in the region need to earn three to four times the federal poverty level to meet basic needs of self-sufficiency. For a family of three in Washington, DC -- one parent with a preschooler and a school-age child -- that income is $47,213. In Prince George's County, it is $46,526 and in Fairfax County -- the most expensive jurisdiction in the report -- it is $61,586. The calculator will be made available to several hundred local government agencies, nonprofits, libraries, and other organizations to help educate families about the cost of living in the District and throughout the region, how their current income compares to their specific self-sufficiency wage, and how to use the calculator to map out a plan for short and long term financial independence. For more information or to access WOW's Self-Sufficiency Calculator, visit http://www.dcmassc.org/. "Helping our region's children and families succeed is at the heart of our Foundation's work. That's why we're excited to support WOW's innovative new tool to help the region's underserved, working families move out of poverty and realize their personal and financial dreams," commented Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., chairman, Freddie Mac Foundation. "At Catholic Charities, our mission is one of empowerment, we help people to build capacity and mastery in their lives. This financial tool, "the calculator" helps them to assess their resources and their opportunities and allows us to provide the kind of help that empowers. We are pleased to be working with Wider Opportunities for Women in this project supported by the Freddie Mac Foundation," added Ed Orzechowski, Catholic Charities of DC President and CEO. "All of the resources I need as I prepare for my new career are in this one place on the internet, the Calculator. I don't have to run around to different offices in the city to find this career planning and benefits information. This is really good for me," commented Michelle Boardley, client of Catholic Charities of DC. Over the past 15 years, the Foundation has invested more than $312 million, bettering the lives of more than 1.7 million children. Along with Freddie Mac, the Foundation is the largest corporate philanthropist in the region. Since 1991, the Foundation's work has helped prevent child abuse and neglect; find permanent, loving homes for foster children; transform an inner- city school into a full-service community school; and help children and their families become independent by investing in programs that leverage both support services and housing. The WOW grant is another important way that the Freddie Mac Foundation is helping underserved families become more self- sufficient and independent. Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) works nationally and in its home community of Washington, DC, to achieve economic independence and equality of opportunity for low-income women. More information about WOW is available at http://www.wowonline.org/. Created by Freddie Mac in 1991, the Freddie Mac Foundation is dedicated to creating hope and opportunity for children, youth, and their families. As the largest corporate funder in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, Freddie Mac and the Freddie Mac Foundation have invested more than $312 million in organizations serving the community. http://www.freddiemacfoundation.org/ DATASOURCE: Freddie Mac Foundation CONTACT: Jennifer Meyer for Freddie Mac Foundation, +1-703-903-3877 Web site: http://www.freddiemacfoundation.org/ http://www.dcmassc.org/ http://www.wowonline.org/

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