Nonprofit Agency Will Hire 24 Bilingual Counselors, Four Managers

ATLANTA, May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) of Greater Atlanta announced today it is significantly bolstering its ability to help Spanish-speaking people in financial trouble by adding 24 new bilingual counselors and four new bilingual managers.

The initiative signals the nonprofit agency's commitment to become the premier financial education and counseling provider in the U.S. for Spanish-speaking people. CCCS of Greater Atlanta currently provides around-the-clock customer service nationally in English and Spanish by telephone and over the Internet.

The expansion is made possible through a new $908,000 grant from The Goizueta Foundation in Atlanta, which was awarded earlier this month.

"We are thrilled that The Goizueta Foundation would demonstrate such confidence in our agency's ability to meet the needs of Spanish-language people not only in Atlanta, but across the country," said Suzanne Boas, president of CCCS of Greater Atlanta. "With the help of this grant we will be able to serve more Spanish-speaking clients and provide honest, unbiased information and advice on financial management."

CCCS of Greater Atlanta is a nonprofit agency that provides confidential budget counseling, debt management programs, comprehensive housing counseling and bankruptcy counseling and education. On average, each credit counselor will counsel about 1,000 people per year, so the 24 new bilingual counselors will be able to help 24,000 Spanish-speaking people in search of solutions to financial crises. The hiring process for the counselors and managers will begin quickly.

Requests for financial counseling from Spanish language residents across the U.S. to CCCS of Greater Atlanta grew from 31,208 in 2007 to 90,276 in 2008. Spanish language accounts for about 20 percent of the agency's overall foreclosure prevention counseling sessions.

"A larger bilingual staff will make a critical difference during the current foreclosure crisis," Boas said. "And we expect that demand will grow for Spanish language education in the future, as lenders will require more borrowers to get pre-purchase housing counseling as a condition of receiving a mortgage."

The grant expands a Spanish language initiative made possible by a donation in 2002 from The Goizueta Foundation. With that $229,400 grant CCCS of Greater Atlanta hired a Hispanic Outreach Coordinator and translated education materials from English to Spanish.

Bilingual employees now account for about 14 percent of the agency's workforce.

"The initial program was a great success and the catalyst for our expansion," Boas said. "It enabled us to provide education services to Spanish-speaking people, established trust in our agency by the local Hispanic community and sparked growing demand for our services in Spanish."

About CCCS

CCCS of Greater Atlanta serves clients in all 50 states and has 33 offices in four states. It is the headquarters for the CredAbility Network, a family of agencies serving consumers in north Georgia, south Florida, middle Mississippi and east Tennessee as well as nationally via telephone and Internet.

CCCS is accredited by the Council on Accreditation and is a member of the Better Business Bureau and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). Governed by a community-based board of directors, CCCS is funded by creditors, clients, contributors and grants from foundations, businesses and government agencies. CCCS offers around-the-clock help by phone at 1-800-251-CCCS or at its Web sites, www.cccsinc.org and www.cccsenespanol.org.

    Media Contact
    Scott Scredon 404-653-8833, Scott.Scredon@cccsinc.org
    John McCosh 404-260-3108, John.McCosh@cccsinc.org

SOURCE Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta

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