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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - April 15, 2008
Antoinette Hardy Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
April 15, 2008

Beaumont, Texas Resident Wins Cash Award To Support Financial Education Program For Single Mothers To Purchase Their First Home


(New York, NY, April 15, 2008) Beaumont, Texas resident Antoinette Hardy, 38, is one step closer to driving meaningful change in her community and creating a better tomorrow. Antoinette was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. She is the first Hello Tomorrow Fund winner to be selected by a newly expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York and actress Phylicia Rashad. Antoinette’s award will support The Beaumont Community Housing Development Organization (BCHDO) – a program that Antoinette started in 2001 as a means to assist low-income families, primarily single mothers, purchase their first home in Beaumont or Port Arthur, Texas.

The country is in the midst of a major mortgage crisis with many families losing their homes on a daily basis. Most recently, the Beaumont area has had a sufficient lack of affordable housing due to the severe damage caused by Hurricane Rita in 2005. With the downward state of the economy coupled with the severe storm damage, programs like BCHDO are even more vital.

BCHDO has been in operation for seven years and has assisted over 300 families through the process of purchasing their first home. The program provides access to financial literacy education, homebuyer counseling and low-down payment mortgages to help overcome several key barriers to homeownership such as impaired credit, inadequate savings for a down payment and lack of financial planning information. BCHDO offers Financial Literacy and Home Buyer Education seminars for community residents several times a year. For many single mothers, this is their first education in finance and the vital skills they leave with can then be passed down to their children, breaking the cycle of poor fiscal health for generations to come. In addition, BCHDO oversees the construction of 12 affordable homes per year. Antoinette explains, “To help someone own a piece of land that God has created brings great joy to me.”

Antoinette has worked in partnership with the City of Beaumont in housing assistance programs for the past 15 years. Prior to running BCHDO, she was working for the Southeast Texas Community Development Organization. When she decided to leave to raise her three children, the opportunity was presented to start and run BCHDO when she was ready to come back to work – an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. As a child of a low-income family, Antoinette remembers the close quarters she and her sister had to share and empathizes with families who desire more space.

Thanks to her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Antoinette will be able to educate an additional 200 women in her community, free of charge, on the necessary financial steps to owning a home. Lessons include how to repair credit, stick to a budget, manage money, set financial goals, establish a down payment, prepare closing costs and manage home maintenance. Antoinette will also apply the award money towards paying a qualified instructor and purchasing curriculum materials and supplies. This community program will empower women to own their very own home – a huge step in creating a better tomorrow for their families.

Antoinette’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including personal finance expert, Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad and Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. “The power of this program is that it educates at-risk women in life-skills and that can make a big difference in terms of feeling able to dream and succeed,” noted judge Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, on Antoinette’s proposal.

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