Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina
Durham, N.C.
Represented by Peter Skillern, executive director
Description of Contribution to Increase Minority Homeownership
Nuestro Barrio is a Spanish language soap opera (telenovela) that entertains and educates. The miniseries has thirteen episodes dramatizing the lives of Latinos in America as they learn to buy a home, use a REALTOR, obtain a mortgage, and learn their rights. The love stories, intrigue and plot pull viewers into the show. Through identification with the characters, viewers learn the financial literacy lessons woven into the story line. A four minute trailer can be viewed at www.nuestrobarrio.tv
Nuestro Barrio was created, written and produced by the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina and funded by Freddie Mac. The show has had national commercial distribution in more than 25 million households in such markets as New York, Chicago, Miami, the Carolinas, Austin, and Denver. Through Freddie Mac, banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, BB&T, and Harris Bank have distributed more than 60,000 DVDs and photonovelas through bank branches and nonprofit partners.
The series addresses barriers of misinformation to homeownership as identified by Freddie Mac research. The program uses a Transthereotical Model of Change to utilize successful health education theory for financial literacy. The show translates concepts, both literally and figuratively, to be accessible to the Latino audience. Using television it is delivered into people's homes. A study by UNC Chapel Hill has shown the program to have a measurable impact on viewers' financial literacy, attitudes and behaviors. We are delighted that actors in the show took the message to heart and have purchased homes themselves.
Nuestro Barrio is the largest, most innovative and most effective financial literacy program for Latinos in the United States.
Measurement
Nuestro Barrio has measurable success in effectiveness.
The Ford Foundation funded a study of Nuestro Barrio by Center for Community Capitalism, a research center within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business. The report, "The Bold and the Bankable: How the Nuestro Barrio Soap Opera Effectively Delivers Financial Education to Latino Immigrants" is at www.ccc.unc.edu/documents/CCC_BoldAndBankable.pdf.
The report finds both quantitative and qualitative measurements that:
The Executive Summary concludes "These findings support the educational and outreach model underlying Nuestro Barrio, in which viewers are attracted by the entertainment and simultaneously educated by the financial literacy content."
This is one of the few evaluations of financial literacy initiatives to prove measurable effectiveness.
We are honored that the Durham Association of REALTORS nominated the program to the North Carolina Association of REALTORS NC4Home awards and which Nuestro Barrio won for homeownership education. The Durham Association of REALTORs is again supporting our nomination.
The program has received national media coverage on National Public Radio and publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald as well as local print, radio and television coverage of more than 250 stories.
Given the program's regional and national distribution, we are pleased by the impact the program has made in partnership with bank and other nonprofits for Latino households.
Innovation
Nuestro Barrio is innovative in concept, implementation and evaluation.
Nuestro Barrio is the first financial literacy and homeownership education initiative that uses mass media vehicle of television in regional and national markets to disseminate information and reach targeted audiences in their homes.
This approach is complimented by a marketing strategy using grassroots outreach, earned media and placement ads to promote the show and message.
Nuestro Barrio is the first homeownership education program to use the health education models of Transtheoritical Models of Change to structure the educational component. This innovation is a new paradigm for the financial education sector and has the potential to change current practices which lack an undergirding of proven educational theory.
Nuestro Barrio is the first Spanish language television show to play on commercial English language stations. This occurred on WB channels in North and South Carolina and Miami, Florida. This reached both the primary (Spanish language) and secondary (English language) audiences and helped to foster intercultural understanding.
Nuestro Barrio is the first educational program to use entertainment as a vehicle for providing education.
Nuestro Barrio is one of the few financial literacy programs to have an academic evaluation of its program effectiveness and shown to be successful.
Minority Acceptance
Nuestro Barrio has received strong Latino acceptance from our local community and from local and national groups across the country.
Local Latino organizations such as El Pueblo and El Centro provided input on the development of Nuestro Barrio and as well as promoting the product at state events such La Fiesta. Nuestro Barrio is used in partnership with the Spanish Coalition for Housing and LUCHA in Chicago and Del Norte in Denver to educate Latino homebuyers. The product is used by local groups in a number of markets across the country.
VME, the public television Spanish language station, aired Nuestro Barrio nationally and for profit television stations such as Telemundo, Azteca and LaTV have aired the show in multiple markets. it has been well received in the Latino television markets.
It has received extensive press coverage in Spanish language print outlets in part through the support of the National Council of La Raza that has provided endorsements in press releases.
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) presented Nuestro Barrio at their annual conference in Orlando, Sept 16-19, 2007 in cooperation with Bank of America and Freddie Mac.
It has been rewarding to receive such strong support from the Latino community.