A new joint venture between the Local Government Federal Credit Union and UNC's School of Government will help cities, towns and counties develop financing tools and training local government officials to develop finance programs.

The credit union is giving the School of Government $1 million for a program called Expanding Development Finance in North Carolina, which will give economically-distressed communities access to sophisticated finance products and services.

The $1 million is expected to fund the project for five years, after which it is expected to become self-sustaining.
 
The second initiative is the credit union's Fellows Executive Development Program, which will teach mid-level managers in local government the skills needed to build and manage development finance programs.

A $625,000 grant will develop the program and subsidize course registration fees for three groups of fellows.