Webster Bank Finance Lab Initiative

Over the past year, Webster Bank has partnered with six nonprofits serving low- to moderate-income communities to create Webster’s signature Finance Labs. Designed to expand financial empowerment opportunities for young people, the labs are a key component of Webster’s $6.5 billion Community Investment Strategy that the bank established soon after the 2022 merger with Sterling National Bank.

Webster provides each nonprofit partner with a $100,000Finance Lab grant and collaborates with the partner to tailor the Finance Lab, so it meets the specific needs of the community being served. Webster created the first lab in May 2022 through a partnership with Yonkers Partners in Education (YPIE). This Lab provides students in Yonkers high schools with the financial literacy skills needed for economic empowerment through the YPIE Finance Major, an intensive after-school program with a focus on financial literacy.

A partnership with Eagle Academy Foundation, which develops and supports a network of all-male, grades 6-12, college-preparatory schools in challenged urban communities, established the second lab. The Eagle Academy network consists of six traditional public schools in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, serving over 5,000 scholars and alumni. The Bank announced its third Finance Lab, and the first one in Connecticut, in December 2022 in partnership with Wakeman Boys & Girls Club in Bridgeport. The Wakeman Finance Lab will operate out of a new clubhouse currently under construction with the capacity to serve more than 1,000 children each year from nine area schools in predominantly minority communities. In June 2023, Webster announced the funding for its next three Finance Lab collaborations, two additional in Connecticut and one in Taunton, Massachusetts.

https://youtu.be/H8Q3aPGV5wg

https://we.tl/t-0eIT1ejLCO