Resources

Financial well-being and education

Reaching your goals takes healthy money habits and financial well-being. From budgeting to homeownership, the free resources below offer practical ways to develop long term financial stability.

Budgeting & Saving

What do you want to achieve financially? Whether you want to buy a new car, build your emergency savings, become a homeowner, or plan for retirement, building a budget and starting to save can help you get there.

The Rochester Financial Empowerment Center offers Free One-on-One Financial Counseling in person or by video call. Genesee Co-op is a partner for the FEC. Tell them you heard about it from Genesee Co-op.
Balance, is a phone and online counseling service that is available to members of Genesee Co-op. Visit their website or call 888-456-2227 to speak with a counselor. Available in English and Spanish.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers a variety of resources to help you make informed financial decisions. Resources are available in English and Spanish.

Borrowing & Managing Credit

Genesee Co-op helps members who are applying for loans to help them qualify-even if not right away. Members who need more help sometimes go to these outside organizational partners of for help.

Annual Credit Report.com is the Federally authorized source for free credit reports and also has information about protecting your credit. Annual Credit Report.com does not include credit scores.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Rochester can help you create a debt management plan.

Launching a Business

The Rochester area has many resources for helping small businesses.

The Enterprise Center at PathStone offers small business lending opportunities.
RIT Center for Urban Entrepreneurship offers one-on-one counseling, mentoring, and general education programming, and more.
The Urban League of Rochester's Business Development Center offers support to micro enterprise startups and existing businesses with a particular focus on serving minority group members, women, dislocated workers, and individuals with a disability.

Owning & Renting a Home

Genesee Co-op offers loans and counseling for members to become a homeowner, improve their home. If you are looking for more information we also work with other local partner organizations.

The Housing Council at Pathstone offers housing counseling for tenants and homeowners, and helps renters take action against discrimination. They are a HUD-approved housing counseling agency and offers pre-purchase education and counseling required for First-Time Homebuyer grants.
Consumer Credit Counseling of Rochester is a HUD-approved housing counseling agency that offers pre-purchase education and counseling required for First-Time Homebuyer grants.
The Urban League of Rochester's Home Store is a HUD-approved housing counseling agency that offers pre-purchase education and counseling required for First-Time Homebuyer grants, credit counseling, and foreclosure intervention and default counseling.
The City of Rochester Homebuyer Services offers a number of grant assistance programs including the Home Purchase Assistance Program, Buy the Block, and HOME Rochester (all of which you can use with a Genesee Co-op mortgage) and the Employer Assisted Housing Initiative.
The City of Rochester Housing Rehabilitation grant programs may be able to help you if you are struggling with the upkeep of your home.

Preventing Fraud

If you're human, there are scams and fraudulent actors targeting you. If you are a member and believe your account may have fraudulent activity, please call us immediately. Here are some resources to help you prevent and report other forms of fraud and identity theft. Please do not give out your account information for any financial institution to someone who calls you.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has great resources on prevent fraud including identity theft, mail fraud, elder abuse, and more.
If you feel like you are being scammed or defrauded you can file a complaint using the NYS Attorney General's financial fraud complaint form.
New York State offers this website with resources to help prevent scams and fraud.
Genesee Co-op members: if you think you may be a victim of a scam or fraud, please call us ASAP and we will do our best to help you get the support you need!