Financial Counselor

About NYLAG:

Founded in 1990, NYLAG is a leading civil legal services organization combating economic, racial, and social injustice by advocating for people experiencing poverty or in crisis. Our services include comprehensive, free civil legal services, financial empowerment, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community partnerships. NYLAG exists because wealth should not determine who has access to justice. We aim to disrupt systemic racism by serving individuals and families whose legal and financial crises are often rooted in racial inequality. NYLAG goes to where the need is, providing services in more than 150 community sites (e.g. courts, hospitals, libraries) and on our Mobile Legal Help Center. NYLAG’s staff of 410 impacted the lives of nearly 129,000 people last year.

Job description

NYLAG’s Financial Empowerment and Advocacy Unit (FEAU), established in 2009, serves a diverse range of clients across New York City, providing financial counseling and advocacy to help individuals achieve stability and independence. FEAU provides services at NYLAG’s office and community-based intake sites throughout New York City, including via our work with the Office of Financial Empowerment, the Human Resources Administration, and private funders.

The financial counselor aims to counsel, coach, educate, and empower low to moderate income New Yorkers and their families. The financial counselor will provide one-on-one assistance to help clients access formal banking relationships, establish and rebuild credit, organize their finances through budgeting, managing and reducing their debt, establishing savings, securing benefits, and understanding taxes to meet their short- and long-term financial goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

Direct services:

• Facilitate in-person and virtual one-on-one financial counseling & coaching for New Yorkers with low-to-moderate income at a variety of community-based organizations and at partner sites.
• Implement retention and engagement strategies to encourage clients to achieve their financial goals and maintain ongoing engagement.
• Foster and maintain strong and collaborative relationships with staff members and external stakeholders to ensure program success.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues, supervisors, and other service providers to ensure high quality services.
• Engage in outreach through workshops, presentations, and direct outreach to prospective clients in partnership and under direction of partner sites as needed.
• Demonstrated committed to expanding access to financial counseling services to communities facing disparate obstacles to achieving economic security, including BIPOC communities, individuals experiencing poverty or in crisis.
• Commitment to delivering services with cultural humility.
• Comfort traveling to partner sites to provide support to program participants. This position requires an on-site presence at the Workforce1 Staten Island location for a minimum of three days per week, or as needed based on project requirements.
• Ensure achievement of program deliverables.

Administrative:

• Ensure data is entered accurately and timely in NYLAG’s case management system and in partner’s system(s), if applicable.
• Ensure client files are saved securely and fully in our central shared file system.

Advocacy:

• When applicable, participate in the unit’s advocacy work by collaborating on blog posts and other activities to highlight our efforts towards advancing racial equity in the financial counseling field.

Qualifications

NYLAG seeks a highly motivated financial counselor with either (i) a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of two (2) years of full-time work experience, with preferred background in finance, financial education, counseling/coaching, or social service delivery; or (ii) four (4) to eight (8) years of full-time work experience in financial education, counseling/coaching, or social service delivery. Experience and maturity in working with a diverse range of partners, funders, and clients. Energy and desire to travel across the NYC metro area in the field working directly with clients at partner sites most days per week. Demonstrated capacity to work independently and strong desire to develop their financial counseling & coaching skill set. This is a position that offers the opportunity to get additional in-house training and further grow your career.

Due to current program needs, preference will be given to applicants who are bilingual and able to read, write, and speak Spanish proficiently. Preference will be given to applicants who have taken the Personal and Consumer Finance course endorsed by the Office of Financial Empowerment.

NYLAG’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

NYLAG is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, veterans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, and those with lived experiences in the communities we serve are strongly encouraged to apply.

Employment type:

☒ Full-time

Professional Level:

☒ Entry Level

Salary Range: NYLAG is a unionized workplace, and salaries are set pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement. The current salary range for this position is between $65,500 - $71,225

Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401k, life insurance, long term disability, commuter benefits, flexible spending accounts (FSA) for Medical and Dependent care.

Application Instructions: Please save resume and cover letter in one pdf.

NYLAG is committed to a hybrid work policy for staff whose work does not require their full-time presence in the office. However, please note that this role does require in-person days at various sites. This policy is subject to change.