Fresh off Newark Mayor Ras Baraka gubernatorial campaign announcement.

His administration is launching a new program aimed at women, a 12 week financial literacy course aimed at giving women the tools they need to pay off debt, grow their savings, or invest in an area where wage gaps and economic disparities are among the highest in the state.

Raven Santana has the story.

Really happy to be launching this program during Black History Month on the last day of Black History Month and a Women's History Month.

Because the women's movement is about women in Newark.

First Lady of Newark.

Linda Baraka wants to make sure women in the city are empowered financially.

That's why she says she launched the Newark Women Moving Forward Financial initiatives, which will give 1000 female residents the tools to achieve financial freedom.

The program partnered with a number of organizations, including the Free, a nationally recognized program that focuses on overcoming the culture of debt, especially among communities of color.

The debt free movement is designed to take people from the beds to the good deeds.

Living with only the good deeds means that you only have you have true financial freedom.

Moving from debt delinquencies and deficits to deposits, dividends and deeds is the goal that we want to have to have full control over your finances.

There is space for everyone in this movement.

After having more than 100,000 people go through this program.

We are excited to partner with First Lady Linda Baraka here in the city of Newark to change even more lives.

Because as a woman, it's important to be on top of your finances no matter where you are in the spectrum, whether you're in debt or whether you're doing positive.

And so it's important to be on top of your finances to make sure that you're financially empowered and that your legacy that you're leaving behind is prepared.

Baraka, who is spearheading the new initiative, was joined by her husband, Ras Baraka, who recently announced he is running for governor.

He made it clear the focus was on his wife's achievements, not his.

I want to say, you know, I'm here today because of me.

You're here today because of Lynda Baraka, my wife.

She helped make this day a reality.

To focus on the empowerment of women is the right thing to do.

Since COVID inflation has hit our communities very hard.

It has hit the country hardest, hit the state hardest, particularly hit black and brown communities very, very hard.

The women in our community have been hit the worse.

The goal of the free 12 week program that also provides access to live events and licensed professionals is to ultimately create pathways for the black community to reach financial freedom.

I think that the program is for everybody, right?

So I don't want you to feel like, Oh, I have to be in debt to participate or I can't participate because I am in debt.

Being empowered runs deep for a municipal council member at large, Luis Scott Roundtree, whose mother owned the Krueger Scott Mansion, Luis Scott, believed to be Newark's first African-American millionaire, operated a beauty school and lived in the mansion from 1966 until 1982.

Now it is where the 12 week program will be held.

I'm excited about this, and it's important because I am the offspring of a woman who came here and did more with less.

Our young women could be empowered with information and knowledge as to how they can do things with less.

Save Baraka says while the goal is to enroll at least 1000 women.

She says ultimately she wants to empower every woman in Newark to financially secure their future through the program.

For NJ Spotlight News I'm Raven Santana.