Community bankers from Fifth Third, Third Federal Lakewood, and Citizens were among those finding the groove at Wealth Wellness Weekend launch

There is a dangerously unsustainable wealth gap in what both American boosters and critics like to proclaim is the richest country in the world. While boosters tout the boundless opportunities for fortune, critics often cite history, birth circumstances, the legal and tax systems, and discrimination as reasons for the country’s distorted, unhealthy, and inefficient wealth distribution.

A recent RAND study of the wealth gap says that whites hold ten times more total wealth than black Americans and are 28 times more likely to become millionaires. And a recent study by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, concludes that just in Ohio, if the wealth gap between black and white citizens were eliminated, it would add tens of billions of dollars to the state’s economy.

Much of this is due to the nation’s history of state-sanctioned discrimination — especially at federal and state levels — as well as private action. A history of the country could be written with the title, Money and Race.

“Yesterday’s segregation is today’s wealth gap. We like to pretend that we live in a race-neutral, merit-based society now, that this is all in the past, but you can’t erase history. It shows up in our wealth. — Jonathan Welburn, RAND researcher

But notwithstanding this picture, there is much that African Americans can do even on an unlevel field to make smart decisions about their personal finances. And increasingly, trusted community partners are taking up the struggle to educate strivers and strainers about making more informed choices as consumers, savers, investors, and planners.

Phe'be Foundation founder/director Sharron Murphy-Williams with Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin [Ward 6]. Cleveland schools educator Larry Tidmore is at left.

One such community partner is the Phe’be Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit that has been working for the past twenty years to provide financial education and increase community financial literacy. Founder and director Sharron Murphy-Williams is the primary engine driving Phe'be's work. A financial planner, credit strategist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, she has assembled a mission-driven team that includes banking executives, community activists, public officials and anyone she can enlist to support the Foundation's mission-driven work.

Working with individuals and families has been a primary part of the Phe’be approach. This weekend, however, the Foundation has cranked it up several notches, launching its first Wealth Wellness Weekend, a high-touch series of events from the Buckeye/Woodhill and Buckeye/Shaker neighborhoods to downtown Cleveland to provide financial, healthcare and educational services for community members of all ages.

Wealth Wellness Weekend kicked off Friday with a community block party featuring live entertainment, games, food trucks, vendors, and various activities on the campus of the Harvey Rice branch of the Cleveland Public Library at East 116 St and Shaker Blvd.

Hand and face painting was a popular activity at the block party

Saturday will feature a Wealth Creation Symposium from 10a-3p offering a variety of workshops, resources, and guest presenters. Topics covered will include bridging the digital divide, STEM career exploration, financial literacy programs for children, credit and money management strategies, mortgage and consumer loans, small business Q&A, and other topics for all ages.

The weekend will conclude with a Wealth Wellness Walk: #StepsAgainstInequities, kicking off Sunday at 9a from the East Ninth St. Pier downtown and winding past numerous downtown landmarks. Abundant resources will be offered, including health and wellness checks, food accessibility, and live cooking demonstrations.

Visit here or here to register and the chance to win prizes or for more details.   

Anita Howard, an executive coach and adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, sees this weekend’s focus as a continuation of the social justice work of the Civil Rights Movement. She views the arc of Phe’be’s work as “moving to support individuals, the whole community, and its financial, healthcare, and educational systems to become self-sustaining, equipping people with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate those systems. Phe’be’s work is moving real community change and leveraging all sorts of resources within the system itself to do so.”

Howard, whose academic work focuses on social justice leadership and change, was perhaps identifying dynamics of the process on display as senior bank officials line danced with community residents to the venerated tunes being pumped out by WOVU-FM, the low-power community radio station founded and run by Burten Bell Carr Development Inc.

Welcome remarks at the weekend opening party were delivered by Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin and Jason L. Tidmore Sr. Griffin represents Ward 6, site of much of Phe’be’s current focus. Tidmore was school principal for the better part of a decade at Harvey Rice Elementary, adjacent to the library campus where the party was held; he now heads up socio-emotional learning programs for the Cleveland Metro School District.

Featured at yesterday’s opening weekend festivities were information booths from several area financial institutions, including Fifth Third, Citizens and Premier banks; First Federal Savings of Lakewood, and Faith United Credit Union.

RELATED: Billions available to Ohio economy if racial disparities were eliminated, study shows

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