JP Morgan Chase CEO, local community leaders celebrate fifth anniversary of Harlem community center branch
Local business and community leaders, joined by JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, met in Harlem to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the bank’s Harlem Community Center branch. The celebration featured a roundtable discussion of the branch’s progress thus far and what further work needs to be done.
“We’re celebrating the five year anniversary of the initiative that started in Harlem, like many other things in black culture,” said Jason Patton, northeast division head of community and business development at JP Morgan Chase. “Our community is telling us it’s working, and we listen to our community.”
The branch, launched in 2019, was Chase’s first community center in the U.S. Since then, 18 more community branches have been established nationwide. This spring, a new community center branch opened on Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The newest addition in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood opened Wednesday afternoon after the roundtable.
Harlem was chosen as the location of the first community center branch due to its proximity to JP Morgan Chase’s headquarters on 270 Park Avenue, said Diedra Porche, national head of community and business development, consumer banking. The branch was designed to help build community trust in financial institutions.
Jianna Smith photos
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JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon joined local community leaders at the roundtable. Photo credit: Jiana Smith. -
Local community leaders celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Harlem Community Center branch with a roundtable discussion on the location’s impact and future. Photo credit: Jiana Smith. -
Art at the Chase’s Harlem Community Center branch. The branch aims to be a welcoming space for the community to improve financial literacy and wellness. Photo credit: Jiana Smith. -
Local restaurateur Melba Wilson and Diedra Porche, national head of community and business development, consumer banking at JP Morgan Chase, at the roundtable event. Photo credit: Jiana Smith. -
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon joined local community leaders at the roundtable. Photo credit: Jiana Smith.
Porché told the AmNews that the branch represented partnership.
“When we started this initiative, it was really about us going out into the community and inviting people back in,” Porché said. “From there, we partnered with [key community leaders and stakeholders] to figure out what a space for a community center would look like.”
Porché said that Chase aimed to provide community members with an inviting space to learn financial literacy and work towards financial stability. This involves creating programming such as Credit Journey, which helps clients improve their credit, and their Coaching for Impact program for entrepreneurs.
“We help small businesses grow and consumers get access to the services they need to buy homes and build wealth,” Porché said during the roundtable. “That’s really what it’s all about.”
The Harlem community branch has seen the highest increase of secure checking accounts of all Central Harlem Chase locations since it opened, according to a report made available at the event. Around 125 entrepreneurs have completed its Coaching for Impact program, and its business deposit customers have grown by around 51 percent since its opening in September 2019 according to Chase.
During the roundtable, led by Nichol King, executive director of community banking at Chase, participants discussed the branch’s impact on their businesses, organizations and the wider Harlem community.
Sharene Wood, founder of Harlem Haberdashery and a Coaching for Impact program alumnus, said that the Harlem Community Branch has not only offered entrepreneurs capital but also the resources and network opportunities to scale their businesses.
“Those are going to be what helps the community and other entrepreneurs grow,” said Wood. “Not just access to capital, but access to strategy and strategic partners that help them thrive, not just survive.”
“We have a lot of people that come into this community, and they make withdrawals,” said Melba Wilson, Harlem restaurateur and TV personality. “Chase makes deposits.”
Wilson said that while the Harlem Community Branch has helped the community, it could be more proactive about making sure entrepreneurs of color are approved for loans.
She said she started her restaurant Melba in 2005 with around $312,000 stored under her mattress. She was told by a bank she would have difficulty getting a loan as a restaurant owner.
According to a report from Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, black entrepreneurs are less likely to apply for bank loans than white entrepreneurs because they fear rejection.
When they do apply, black entrepreneurs are also three times less likely to be approved or fully approved.
“People are afraid to come into a bank,” Wilson said. “How do we reach out to those people that still have a dream that has not been realized?”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, encouraged the continued growth of the Harlem branch.
“We’re not just doing it for JP Morgan,” Dimon said at the roundtable. “We’re doing it to lift up society, which I think is a very important thing that people do.”
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