CBR provides three related services to help you with your credit report:

• How to read and understand your credit report
• How to get copies of your credit report
• How to dispute inaccuracies on your credit report

Understanding Your Credit Report
If you’d like help understanding your credit report, call us at (262) 637-9580 to make an appointment. You will meet with our director, Gloria Mitchell, in a confidential meeting. Ms. Mitchell’s experience as the manager of the former credit bureau makes her an expert in this area.

You can also contact us by email. Please include your name and phone number. Someone from the CBR office will contact you.

Getting Copies of Your Credit Report
When you come in, you’ll need to have a copy of your credit report from at least one of the major credit reporting agencies. To find out how to obtain a copy of your credit
report, click here.

Disputing Your Credit Report
Your credit report is used by banks, credit card companies, lending companies, landlords, employers and insurance companies. More than ever, it is important to make sure your credit report is accurate.

To find out more about disputing your credit report, click here.

Getting the word out in a non-threatening environment ... That’s what CBR’s seminars and workshops are all about. Business professionals in our community volunteer to conduct these free seminars on financial issues. Each seminar is customized to meet the needs of the participants. Read about one of our workshops with seniors below.

Renters and auto insurance at the Marian Housing Center, Spring Street.
As seniors move into a new phase of their lives, their insurance needs change. Teresa Lange, Johnson Insurance Services, and Debra Brown, American Family Insurance, collaborated to create a special program to meet the specific needs of assisted-living residents. Presented in a non-sales oriented environment, the workshop dealt with auto and renters insurance.

Seniors were provided with protection and liability information for their apartments and possessions. Even those who already had renters insurance learned about their rights and responsibilities. They learned about new laws that could affect them as drivers and that when they were passengers to make sure their drivers were adequately insured.

Handouts and informational brochures were distributed to each resident so they would have the information they needed to make informed decisions about their coverage.

Seminars and workshops for your group?
Find out more about our workshops. Contact Gloria Mitchell, the executive director of CBR. Call (262) 637-9580 or send an email to find out more.

Teresa Lange is one of our volunteers from the business community.

Grants are made to institutions and individuals for the purpose of supporting financial education in our community. Most of our grants are made to schools and teachers. In order to qualify for a grant, the purpose must be clearly in line with our mission of providing financial education to the community.

Newspapers in Education is a program that promotes the use of the newspaper as a teaching tool in the classroom. CBR is a Gold Sponsor of The Racine Journal Times program, providing more than 3,800 newspapers to area students. Teachers use newspapers as a motivational tool in the classroom more than regular textbooks. Studies have shown that students have improved their reading skills as a result of using the newspaper in the classroom. It cultivates critical thinking and writing skills with analysis of local, national and world news, political cartoons and editorials. It heightens awareness of current events and issues.

St. Catherine’s High School has been the recipient of a grant for each of the last four school years. This year’s grant for the school year 2004-05 was in the amount of $19,500. Funds will be used to continue to provide financial education to students, teaching them practical business skills and economic awareness through the use of innovative technology and internet access. Last year’s grant (2003-04) was used to underwrite three levels of accounting classes.

Because of grants like these, the school is able to provide more classes, making these classes available to more students. Students learn accounting procedures, spreadsheet and accounting software, business decision-making and analytical skills.

In the school year 2002-03, Junior Achievement of Racine reached over 7,000 students with 200 volunteers. This is a great opportunity for students and business people from our community to work together and learn from each other. Junior Achievement always needs volunteers from the community. With more volunteers, they can impact the lives of more students. To learn more about JA, click on their logo to go to their site.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) is a non-profit organization located in Racine. It offers financial guidance, support and options to individuals and families seeking to improve their money management skills and solve debt problems. CBR has supported programs at CCCS for four years now.

Racine Educators receive grants to attend conferences where they study specific financial products or issues.

Recipients of the grant are:

• Dawn Framstad, an economics teacher at Washington Park High School, 2002.
• James Crain, a teacher at the Racine Youthful Offenders Correction facility in Sturtevant, 2003
• Gwen Wortock, a Racine resident who teaches in the Kenosha Unified School district, 2004.

The Wisconsin Institute for Financial & Economic Education is a program designed specifically for educators. Not only do they learn in depth about financial issues, but they also have the opportunity to network with other teachers and learn proven techniques for teaching the subject to their students. If you’re interested teachers!

CBR collects educational and reference materials consisting of reprints of articles, books, pamphlets, teaching kits and videos. Most of the materials originate from the government, banks and other financial institutions, consumer advocacy groups and downloads. Click on the following links for information on how to order free publications.

• FTC Bestsellers List, a downloadable PDF from the Federal Trade Commission site. When you get to the page, click on "Best Sellers" in the middle of the "How to" box.
• Consumer Information Catalog, from the Federal Information Center in Pueblo, Colorado.
• Consumer Information and Publications and Education Resources, from the Federal Reserve Board and its member banks.
• Consumer @action, Consumer Education and Advocacy since 1971, has publications in English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

In keeping with our objective to inform and educate the community about financial
issues, CBR has a two-part program consisting of:

• articles in The Racine Journal Times, appearing every two weeks, and
• the CBR website, which expands on the information in the newspaper

Newspaper
For more than two years now, CBR has run a series of newspaper articles to inform, teach, alert and make recommendations to the community at large. The articles run every other week on Thursday. Look for our recently acquired “expert,” Mr. Munn E. Bags.

Mr. Munn E. Bags

Mr. Bags answers typical questions about personal finance from fictitious writers. His style is friendly and helpful and, most importantly, his answers are well researched and easy to read.

Internet
Telling you about us… The website supports all the functions of the foundation providing you with information about the foundation itself, its mission and its objectives. But beyond that, CBR uses its website as a conduit of news and information.

Providing useful information… The primary emphasis is to make information more readily available to the Racine community. The Internet is filled to overflowing with offers and advice about personal financial matters. Fraud and deceit is difficult to discern from the truth and good advice.

Choosing links to other sites carefully… Before any information is posted on our site, before any link is made available and before any recommendations are made, CBR researches and verifies all websites and information contained on them for: accuracy, reliability, and relevance.

We just want to caution you, however, that once you leave our website, we can’t be 100% sure that you won’t encounter misleading, out-dated or even false information. We monitor our links constantly, but before you take the advice of any information about personal finances from the Internet or any other source, consult with a trusted family member, friend or financial advisor.

Publications for the community
Because of CBR’s non-profit status, we have access to free materials from many organizations in the government and the Federal Reserve Banking system. If you see something pertaining to financial education that you’d like to use with a group or in the classroom, contact us. We may be able to help defray some of the costs by ordering for you.

CBR has created and distributed information to banks/credit unions and rental units on several important issues that affect consumers. Here are some that are available for the asking or can be downloaded in PDF format

Renters Insurance. In the summer of 2003, CBR sent information about renters insurance to many of the apartment complexes and smaller rental units for distribution to the tenants.

90 Days, Same as Cash. This brochure explains those great deals where merchants offer merchandise with no payments until…

Protecting Your Credit During a Divorce. This brochure explains the steps you should take to protect your good credit reputation during a divorce procedure. A handy quick guide like this could save you lots of hassles in the long run.