Leaders Explore Impact as Chase Harlem Community Center Turns Five
by THT Staff, Derrell Johnson
As JPMorganChase’s Harlem Community Center Branch on 125th Street reached its fifth anniversary this fall, leaders from the firm and the Harlem community gathered to celebrate its successes and plans for the future. The festivities kicked off with a photo shoot for this issue’s cover, an homage to the famous A Great Day in Harlem photograph from 1958. The photo, shot by Wesley Volcy, took place in front of Harlem Haberdashery, a local icon whose founder is a graduate of Chase’s “Coaching for Impact” program. Following the shoot, local leaders gathered at the flagship Harlem branch to celebrate the impact this community resource has had since opening in 2019.
Chase’s flagship Community Center Branch in Harlem was the first of its kind in the nation, pioneering a new model of community-focused banking. The facility was designed, built, and programmed in collaboration with local organizations to offer specialized financial health resources for Harlemites, including programs to strengthen financial literacy, assist small businesses, and build wealth in the community.
The firm recently released a research brief that found that the Harlem Community Center Branch has seen the highest amount of new secure checking accounts created among branches in the area, while also seeing strong growth in personal savings balances. Thousands of Harlem residents have also attended community-building financial health events at the branch where Chase supports local entrepreneurship and the path to homeownership.
Five years on, Chase is expanding their Community Centers to 19 neighborhoods across the nation, including branches opened in Brooklyn and the Bronx earlier this year.
“Our success in Harlem isn’t charity, it’s good business. By providing access to banking, credit and investment services, and offering the tools and education to take full advantage of all we can offer, we are building stronger, more vibrant communities, which leads to better outcomes,” said JPMorganChase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.
During the five-year anniversary festivities, Chase announced that it will hire 75 additional Community Managers around the country, increasing the nationwide total to 225 and bringing their financial health-building work to rural and urban communities across the lower 48 states by 2030, all stemming from the pilot program’s success in Harlem.
In celebration of the five-year anniversary, “Harlem’s Banker” Nichol King, Executive Director of Community and Business Development for Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island at Chase and who served as the firm’s first-ever Community Manager, moderated a roundtable to discuss the branch’s impact with Dimon and community leaders, including:
- Winston Majette, Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce
- E. Hamil Douglas, Harlem Commonwealth Council
- Curtis Archer, Harlem Community Development Corporation
- Shay Wood, Harlem Haberdashery
- Andrew Rich, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York
- Melba Wilson, Entrepreneur, Restaurateur & Author
- Dr. Malcolm Punter, Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement
- Phil Weinberg, STRIVE
“To be able to convene a table with our Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon to really talk about our work in Harlem, it is just like a dream of mine,” King told The Harlem Times.
King shared her excitement when asked about the program’s expansion to 19 additional locations nationwide. “I think my ancestors are proud,” she said. “My ancestors made the journey from Jamaica to the United States, and they called Harlem their home. I’m a vessel of the great work of my ancestors, of their boldness, and I’m just really proud to stand on their shoulders to make an impact in my community.”
“This is a monumental moment for us and that is not an understatement,” said Jason Patton, Head of Community and Business Development Banking for the Northeast Division at Chase.
“When you think back to 2019 and before that, we were present in this community — we had branches just like a lot of other financial institutions, and we banked people locally — but what we didn’t have was the presence and the trust that we’ve earned over the last five years. And that has made a huge difference.”
– Jason Patton
Patton also discussed the importance of meeting people where they are.
“What we’ve done over the last five years has proven a model where we can engage people in their communities, whether through events or financial education workshops, partnerships with local institutions that have credibility and trust in the community, and people that are mission-minded,” he added. “In partnership with a lot of those institutions, we’ve been able to meet people where they are and build that trust.”
Curtis Archer, a longtime community partner whose insights were instrumental in shaping the Community Center Branch, added, “Harlem sees the Community Center as a shining beacon. I also love that when it opened, it became a welcoming place for the nonprofit community.”
Chase has been in Harlem since the 1960s and has assisted the financial needs of Harlemites for generations. The Harlem Community Center Branch is a commitment from the firm that will continue to empower Harlem for years to come.