The People’s Emergency Center (PEC) has now served 127 and counting West Philadelphia residents through its new Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) in the month and a half since it opened in Mantua. The center is a partnership between PEC, the Philadelphia Local Initiatives Support Corporation (Philadelphia LISC), Citi Foundation, and other private funders.

PEC’s Financial Opportunity Center, which is located not far from the intersection of Lancaster Avenue and Spring Garden Street, offers career training, financial education and improved access to public assistance for low and moderate-income residents in the community.

This FOC is the third to open within Philadelphia, and the second in West Philadelphia, in the past couple of years. Philadelphia LISC has worked with the University City District and Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) to serve residents in North and West Philadelphia.

Funding for the other two FOCs came from the Citi Foundation, the Walmart Foundation, Oak Foundation, the William Penn Foundation and State Farm. State Farm has provided ample funding for a number of LISC programs nationwide.

PEC hit the ground running with the third FOC, hosting over a hundred locals for a job and resource fair in late January and serving dozens of other people on a one-to-one basis, according to Trish Downey, manager of external communications at the Center.

The FOC is part of the People‘s Emergency Center’s Financial Empowerment Center, which opened as a result of collaboration between PEC, the City of Philadelphia, and the local financial literacy non-profit Clarifi in March 2013. The Empowerment Center is one of six that opened across Philadelphia. It maintains normal business hours Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM.