The Pittsburgh Financial Empowerment Center: Unlocking Financial Freedom to Provide a More Complete Overall Health Care Picture

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As of November 2022, the Pittsburgh Financial Empowerment Center has helped 1227 clients, saved them over $2 million, and helped reduce their debt by almost $3.5 million. Counselor Alicia Donner discusses how the organization not only provides financial assistance but also helps patients cope with unexpected health care expenses.

The Pittsburgh Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) opened in March of 2019, and it currently offers financial counseling in the 4 main areas of financial empowerment: access to safe and affordable banking, building and improving credit, reducing debt, and increasing savings. Services toward home and small business ownership and general money management are also provided.

As of November 2022, the FEC has helped 1227 clients, saved them over $2 million, and helped reduce their debt by almost $3.5 million.

While in Pittsburgh recently to visit the UPMC Health Plan Neighborhood Center, we sat down with Alicia Donner, counselor, to learn more about the FEC, which is a community partner of the Neighborhood Center, and its services.

Donner notes that, “Looking at community health, and health holistically, is so important, and just from my lens, financial resilience in the health space is just being able to weather an unexpected expense or the expenses that come with a health care crisis.”