JP Morgan Chase / WAMU support OlyCAP Asset Building program Port Townsend, WA, December 24, 2008 -JP Morgan Chase, responding to an earlier application to WAMU, last week awarded $7500 to OlyCAP in general operating support for Asset Building Programs in Clallam and Jefferson Counties. Asset building programs create opportunities for low-income working families to strengthen their financial future, improve their financial management skills, secure their savings, achieve economic self-sufficiency and build wealth, according to Peter Badame, OlyCAP's Asset Building Program Manager. The current program follows a very successful Individual Development Account (IDA) Program that OlyCAP operated between 2000 and 2005. That program was ranked third most successful in the state according to Bonnie White, Co-Director of Community Support Services. "Twenty-one of the twenty-nine families that passed through our program saved to buy a house," said White, "the other eight were saving either for education or to start a business." Today the asset building program is working to develop a coalition of public and private organizations that will cooperate in creating a two-county asset building plan for the long term. At the same time the program is creating a series of pilot initiatives. One initiative is free classes for first time home buyers navigating the home purchase process. The classes are offered by a partnership of North Olympic Peninsula organizations including Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), Homeward Bound, Clallam County Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity Clallam County, Habitat for Humanity East Jefferson County and Jefferson County Housing Authority. Open to all, the free six-hour class helps buyers maximize their purchasing power. Other initiatives include free public financial education programs and a financial education demonstration project for middle school students and their parents.