Five-person Community Empowerment Center logs 6,000 client touchpoints

Greylock Federal Credit Union's Kellogg Street branch in Pittsfield, Mass., not far from the New York state line, looks ordinary from the sidewalk. But climb the stairs, and the atmosphere shifts from routine banking to financial triage.

Here, a Community Empowerment Center (CEC) with five full-time staff members logged 1,904 one-on-one coaching sessions in 2024, refinanced triple-digit APR payday loans, and facilitated nearly 6,200 total touchpoints—including classes, tax returns, and student workshops. The upstairs hub is turning heads because it delivers bottom-line community impact.

Rural Berkshire County's infrastructure gives the CEC urgency. Public transit shuts down early, and many households fall inside federally designated Opportunity Zones. By dedicating half of an upstairs branch to secured, appointment-only offices and mini-classrooms, Greylock put coaching, translation services, and branch products under one roof that clients can reach on foot, or via Zoom if buses aren't running.

Since the CEC began tracking outcomes in 2018, 59 percent of coached members have improved their FICO scores, a metric Greylock's board now reviews quarterly alongside traditional balance sheet ratios.

871 percent APR payday loan refinanced

"We have a saying here: we meet people where they're at," said Cindy Shogry-Raimer, Greylock vice president and director of community development. "I'm not going to lecture you about saving money when you don't have enough to heat your home or feed your family."

That philosophy underpins Greylock's Safety Net Loans. Shogry-Raimer recalled the moment a client walked in with an $800 payday loan balance carrying an 871 percent APR.

"The predatory lending out there is awful," she said.

Greylock bought out that contract and rewrote it.

"We put her into a loan at 7.99 percent, and her new monthly payment equaled what she'd been paying every week," Shogry-Raimer added.

She reminded peers that impact and sound underwriting can coexist: "If the ability to pay is there, then you're going to get approved - and we'll work on helping you build that credit."

Because every CEC product is underwritten on the ability to pay rather than credit score, the team can refinance predatory debt, fund ITIN mortgages (a home‑loan program designed for borrowers who file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number rather than a Social Security number), and still price risk responsibly.

The 1,904 assistance sessions the CEC handled last year were up from 1,611 in 2023. The first quarter of 2025 has already logged 345 unique clients on 354 sessions, roughly 75 percent of all coaching requests credit union-wide.

Scaling inclusion with a five-person crew

Beyond the five full-time specialists, Greylock has trained 31 Certified Credit Union Financial Counselors embedded in branches. They occasionally step in at the CEC for overflow appointments, community tabling events, or virtual classes—while recertifying every three years.

Language access multiplies the CEC's reach. "I speak just poquito Español (a little Spanish), but my team includes native Spanish speakers and a coach fluent in five Ghanaian dialects. Language should never be a barrier to financial wellness," Shogry-Raimer said.

Classes are run in English and Spanish, with Brazilian Portuguese modules for first-time homebuyers, and web-based interpretation covers 300 more languages. That inclusivity helped the CEC host 154 households for free VITA tax preparation this season-double the prior year.

Education starts early and often. Greylock licenses Banzai's interactive curriculum for local schools and logged 4,120 student completions in 2024. Fraud prevention workshops feature real scam texts from staff phones. Homebuying classes are split into "preparation" tracks for those two plus years out and deep dive sessions for shoppers who are mortgage-ready.

CDFI designation guides strategy

Greylock's ability to launch the CEC traced back to its Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) designation. Shogry‑Raimer explained that CDFI dollars supplied the seed capital ordinary branch budgets could never spare. That award, she added, validated Greylock's inclusive focus and gave the board a concrete external metric-impact in low‑income census tracts-to pair with traditional financial ratios.

Instead of erecting new brick and mortar, Greylock gutted and renovated the upper floor of an existing branch that the credit union already owned.

"We tore it down to the studs and gutted it—just left the infrastructure- and thought, what a perfect spot to move the Community Empowerment Center," she recalled.

The retrofit kept costs low while placing the CEC squarely inside an Opportunity Zone surrounded by high‑rent and low‑income housing—another strategic choice driven by CDFI criteria.

Placing the CEC in an Opportunity Zone cut transportation hurdles, while partnerships with nonprofits provide wraparound services—food banks, utility assistance funds, even a mobile health van during COVID. Those referrals turn short-term relief into long-term stability, the ultimate goal of every coaching plan.

Who says small teams can’t move mountains?

For credit union leaders elsewhere, Greylock’s upstairs facility offers a replicable blueprint: start with a handful of certified coaches, measure outcomes members can feel (and that boards can quantify), and insist that every loan denial triggers a referral—not a dead end. If one compact loft can touch 6,000 lives a year, imagine what an industry of 5,000 credit unions could do.