CCCS of Orange County is proud to introduce the 2014 NFCC PACE Award Counselor of the Year, Aileen Chau!
It is a true honor and privilege that one of our very own homegrown and trained NFCC-Certified Consumer Credit and Housing Counselors, Aileen Chau, was selected as the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's PACE Award Counselor of the Year. Aileen bested candidates nationwide from over 600 offices in all 50 states and Puerto Rico for the honor. Our agency was also recognized for having produced such a high-quality winner in such a talented and competitive field.
Counseling Supervisor Dilani Silva, NFCC PACE Award Counselor of the Year Aileen Chau, and President/CEO Cheryl Borden along with the prestigious award
Aileen's background couldn't have prepared her any better for her success in credit and housing counseling. She was an outstanding sociology student with honors degrees, plus she had extensive outside work in real estate. She is both sensitive and insightful and has the delicate interpersonal skills needed for successful counseling, as well as having the financial background that has served her well during the housing crisis.
Aileen was almost single-handedly responsible for the success of our three year association with the NFCC's Rebuilding Financial Stability pilot program. It was her vision that enabled us to have the highest re-enrollment and retention rates for clients. She did this through the many program extras she brought to the table:
- visionary utilization of online tools like mint.com
- helping to develop and conduct monthly support groups for participants
- seeking out additional financial coaching training, which she used to move the program toward a more mentorship approach rather than crisis management to our clients needs
- implementing holistic case-management tools
- and much more.
Aileen has also been instrumental in the success of our work as a designated Keep Your Home California counseling portal agency. This program utilizes select nonprofit housing counseling organizations to screen and submit eligible homeowners for very generous but extremely restricted mortgage assistance funds. The agency qualifications are stringent and the homeowner requirements are high, yet Aileen has been able to get more clients accepted into this portal than any other counselor. The funds are also very difficult to win due to constantly changing criteria but, due to Aileen's record, our agency has also been number one in production in the state.
She has also been our main counseling administrator of the Orange County Consumer Assistance Program. This is a cooperative partnership with other local non-profits funded by the Office of the California Attorney General by making available the National Mortgage Settlement funds. It provides a "Housing Plus" approach to foreclosure prevention and recovery. Through this partnership, we developed a more holistic approach to housing counseling for preventing or recovering from foreclosure, as Aileen was one of the first to champion. "Housing problems do not occur in a vacuum," Aileen said. "It is grossly ineffective to simply work to save the home while ignoring the many other financial problems in distressed families, including unsecured debt loads."
Outside the agency, Aileen represents us at many local outreach events with many of our more than 300 community partners. She provides immediate counseling and projects a truly welcoming profile for our organization. She never just counsels as she was trained - she goes beyond that and asks the tough questions and seeks out the answers from her peers.
In her free time, she is an active volunteer in civic organizations like the Toastmasters and HOPE Worldwide. She's traveled abroad to help in places like inner-city schools in Guatamala, and worked in foster family homes locally. She also volunteers 5 or more hours each week at her church. In both her professional initiative and private life, she inspires us all to want to do more.
In our quality improvement surveys of clients, Aileen consistently receives perfect scores. Nearly every comment includes words like "kind," "patient," "caring," "hard-working," and "professional." This is the Aileen we know, and we are proud to introduce her as the 2014 NFCC PACE Award Counselor of the Year!
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Consumer Credit Counseling Service
1920 Old Tustin Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92705
map & directions
P: (800) 213-2227
F: (714) 245-1680
E: cccsoc@cccsoc.org
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