The Service to America Medal, awarded by Partnership for Public Service, was accompanied by a $3,000 monetary award, which the FDIC team plans to donate to a NeighborWorks organization as an Individual Development Account matching fund.

Neighborhood Reinvestment entered a formal partnership with the FDIC in April 2002 to use the FDIC’s "Money Smart" financial literacy program "to train adult educators and teach money management skills to thousands of people, primarily low-income consumers, minorities or women who are potential homebuyers or existing homeowners having problems making ends meet." View press release.

Nearly 13 million Americans lack access to mainstream banking and financial services, falling prey to costly check-cashing services or payday lenders for short-term loans. Many are the victims of scams. All miss the benefits of having a banking relationship – the ability to establish a credit record, to accumulate savings, to own a home and build equity. Nelson Hernandez and the Community Affairs team at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and their partners are working to change this.

The FDIC Community Affairs team designed a comprehensive multimedia adult teaching tool called the Money Smart Program to help guide the economically disadvantaged toward financial security. Offered free of charge in multiple languages, its user-friendly interface allows virtually anyone to learn an introduction to banking services and credit, how to choose and keep a checking account, effective ways to keep track of finances, and other money management techniques.

Supervising 40 team members across the country, Hernandez has developed partnerships with 350 financial institutions, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to better deliver the program’s benefits since its July 2001 inception. "Nelson was really looking creatively for connections outside FDIC," said Dylla. "He saw that he had one piece of the puzzle and how it could fit into a larger existing system."

Dylla had expected it to take years for anything to come of the partnership between Neighborhood Reinvestment and FDIC, but Hernandez and the team were able to deliver Money Smart within two months. "Nelson and his crew were really the driving force to make sure Money Smart didn’t just sit on a shelf somewhere," Dylla said.

The program is continuing to reach more Americans in need. FDIC has trained more than 1,700 representatives from banks, community organizations, local governments and faith-based agencies in how to use Money Smart.

When Hernandez started at the FDIC in June 2001, Money Smart was barely off the ground and the agency had no clear plan for rolling out the program. Training materials were available only in English. Hernandez immediately sought to translate the materials into Spanish. By the end of 2003, training will be available in Korean and Vietnamese, too. There are plans to put the materials on CD-ROM and eventually offer them online.

Between July 2001 and December 2002, the FDIC had sent 85,000 copies of educational materials to its partners. Those groups provide the actual classroom training. At least 100,000 people have completed the course. Of those, an estimated 13,000 have since opened bank accounts.
Hernandez says his dedication to the program "is personal because of where I grew up and my experiences." As a young adult, he worked on community development projects in Los Angeles' most destitute neighborhoods.

As a staffer for a local politician and at the Los Angeles office of the Housing and Urban Development Department, Hernandez has seen the difference that government can make in people’s lives.

Donna Gambrell, Hernandez’s boss at the FDIC, says his local experience is invaluable. "He has tremendous credibility because he has worked in communities," she says. "People can tell a bureaucrat from a regular person. He can relate to people and knows how to pinpoint their needs."

Twenty eight public servants from across the country were named as finalists for the 2003 Service to America Medals -- a new, national awards program to honor the finest achievements of our nation's federal employees.

Of the 28 finalists, nine Service to America Medals awardees were chosen and announced at an October 15, 2003 awards ceremony in Washington, DC. The awardees were chosen by a selection committee that included prominent public figures such as David Broder, national political correspondent at the Washington Post; Caroline Kennedy; U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), the Honorable Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami; Arthur Sulzberger, chairman and publisher of the New York Times; and Llewellyn Wells, co-executive producer of NBC's "The West Wing".

The Service to America Medals, or "SAMMIES," were created in 2002 by the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to recruiting and retaining excellence in the federal civil service, and the Atlantic Media Company, publisher of The Atlantic Monthly, National Journal and Government Executive magazines. For more information, please visit www.govexec.com/pps.

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