Arlo Washington is the founder & president of People Trust Community Federal Credit Union
At 19, Washington used a student loan refund to open a barber shop. In 2008, he opened Washington Barber College in Little Rock, which was accredited in 2010 and remains in business. He also created People Trust Loan Fund, a microlender certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution in 2016. He then founded People Trust Community Federal Credit Union in North Little Rock, which was chartered in 2022 and opened in 2023.
After more than a year of operation, what has been the most surprising lesson learned from running People Trust? What’s been the hardest lesson?
I know the wealth gap for low and moderate-income individuals and communities is wide, but what was surprising to me was how wide. The wealth gap has impacted these communities psychologically, significantly, and in every other way on so many socioeconomic levels. The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. How great the need is for a bank in the neighborhood. It’s critical to have culturally conscious financial institutions like a Community Development Financial Institution. I didn’t fully understand that when it comes to experience with working with the unbanked or underbanked populations how the word “gap” is relatively small compared to what is really going on in our communities in individual lives — the challenges, obstacles and the hurdles one has to overcome to access capital. The hardest lesson definitely has been navigating the complexities of technology providers who over-promise and under-deliver. How to build a plane while you fly the plane? How to tap dance and chew…
Read the full article here
