Michelle Collins stands outside a building at 5820 W. Chicago Ave. in Austin, where Leaders Network Financial in partnership with Great Lakes Credit Union plans to open its first branch in August.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
State regulators have approved a partnership between a Chicago-area financial institution and a West Side community organization, paving the way for the pair to open a credit union in Austin this summer, the group announced on Tuesday.
The credit union, called Leaders Network Financial in partnership with Great Lakes Credit Union, expects to begin offering services as soon as June and plans to open a physical branch in late August inside the Sankofa Center at 5820 W. Chicago Ave.
The credit union comes from the Leaders Network, a group of West Side faith leaders, and is led by Michelle Collins, an Austin native and longtime banker, who has been working towards establishing a credit union there for two years.
“There are people in Austin who have money and they need these services,” she said. “Nothing happens if people aren’t able to access capital.”
Nearly 1 out of every 3 adults in Austin don’t have a checking or savings account, according to the Chicago Health Atlas. That compares to 1 in 10 in the city overall who don’t have accounts.
By partnering with an established institution in Great Lakes, which has 13 branches in the Chicago area, Leaders Network Financial will be able to offer any typical financial service, from savings and certificates of deposit to car loans, business loans and mortgages.
Membership will be open to members of the Leaders Network, which people can join at leadersnetworkchicago.org for about $60. But once the credit union is ready to launch, Collins said, there would be an option to join the Leaders Network just for the credit union for only $5.
Collins said the group is planning to celebrate the online launch around Juneteenth, as construction is continuing on the physical branch.
“We’re not done, but we’re close to the finish line of getting this first branch up and running,” Collins said.
The group hopes to open a second branch soon after in West Garfield Park, as part of the upcoming Sankofa Wellness Village. That plan to develop the West Side neighborhood was awarded $10 million from the Pritzker Traubert Foundation as part of the foundation’s 2022 Chicago Prize.
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
