Fostering Community-Driven Prosperity and Opportunity

“If you see a problem, fix the problem." - Arlo Washington

Join us for a documentary screening and panel discussion as "The Barber of Little Rock" Arlo Washington, Harold Pettigrew, President and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network and Raymond Lanza-Weil, President of Common Capital, Western Massachusetts' local community development finance institution discuss community banking’s potential and impact, through addressing access and need.

Arlo Washington worked his way out of poverty by apprenticing as a barber, opening his first shop at age 20, expanding to seven shops, and then establishing a barber school. Seeing the need to support barber college students with emergency hardships, Arlo’s compassion manifested through small dollar/low interest loans, funded monthly through the barber school's profits.

From small personal loans, then with the nonprofit People Trust Community Loan Fund, Arlo worked to end the surrounding urban credit desert, defined by no banks within a ten-mile radius. Understanding that his community needed more than loans, Arlo chartered People Trust Community Federal Credit Union in 2022, the first minority-owned and operated financial institution in Arkansas. The documentary of his mission to solve historical problems, financed in part by NBA Hall of Fame player Dwayne Wade and the MassMutual Foundation, was nominated for a 2024 Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film.

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