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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - September 2, 2008
Linda Hatcher Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
September 2, 2008

Detroit, Michigan Resident Wins Cash Award To Provide Financial Literacy And Job Training Skills To Low-Income Women


(New York, NY, September 2, 2008) - Detroit, Michigan resident Linda Hatcher, 60, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Linda 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 second recipient of a Hello Tomorrow Fund award in Michigan since the program launched in 2007, and was selected by a newly expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York and actress Phylicia Rashad. Linda will use her award to launch Hope and Power, a program that will provide financial literacy and job seeking classes to low-income women, many of whom are victims of domestic violence.

According to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey, nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. As women leave dangerous living situations every day, one of the largest obstacles to leading a debt-free and productive life is the lack of financial education and budgeting skills. Unfortunately, these skills are rarely taught in school, and many women who must run their households alone find themselves struggling financially due to the lack of job training and financial planning skills.

Linda is a survivor of domestic violence and experienced first-hand the thrill of “victory and freedom” once she fled her abusive situation and began to rebuild her life. She earned her GED, went on to college and earned a Master’s degree in communications. Today, as an adjunct instructor of public speaking at Wayne County Community College, and a full time employee at the Detroit Health Department, she has come across many women who are desperate to learn how to budget and plan financially so they can manage their debt and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. Linda also sees many survivors of domestic violence who have little or no means to look for a job, and she has yearned to teach a class on both financial literacy and job seeking/interviewing skills.

With support of the Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Linda will create two 12-week programs, each providing 12 women with weekly three hour sessions held at a local church. The curriculum will consist of financial literacy and employment-seeking skills education, with an expert on each topic serving as a guest speaker. The women will also engage in various workshops, class discussions, activities, mock interviews, and critique sessions. Linda will assist the participants in opening a checking and savings account, looking for a job, balancing a checkbook, and creating a personal budget. Among the tools Linda will use are Suze Orman’s book, Women and Money and the “Hope and Power” guidebook she will create with information from the National Coalition for Domestic Violence and The National Endowment for Financial Education and Intuit.

Thanks to her Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Linda will be able to launch Hope and Power and provide low-income women in her community, including survivors of domestic violence like her, with the necessary skills to obtain employment and manage their families’ finances. The participants will gain important skills as well as support and courage to take control of their lives.

Linda’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, and experts in business and grantmaking. “Financial knowledge is power no matter how basic,” noted Sarah Ferguson of Linda’s proposal. “This is a wise program that will benefit participants in big ways.”

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