When President Barack Obama announced plans to put together an economic stimulus package designed to get the country out of its financial doldrums, he talked about it helping both Wall Street and Main Street.

But can the $787 billion package do anything to help the folks on Broad Street, Cecil B. Moore Avenue or Susquehanna and Dauphin Streets?

That’s the subject of the next Financial Recovery workshop sponsored by Temple University’s Office of Community Relations and Community Service. The presentation is part of a series of workshops that will focus on all aspects of improving the community’s financial health while providing them with the tools to do such things as start a small business, go back to school or buy a home.

The workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, March 24 at 6 p.m. in room 214 of the Community Education Center, 1509 Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

According to Bernice Williams, a professional financial coach who will conduct the workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn what the stimulus act entails; how to utilize the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit; ways to access financial aid for education; and options for low-cost health insurance.

“We’ll look at what [community members] may need to go forward,” she said. “You need to know where you are to know where you’re going and how to use the parts of the stimulus that may pertain to you.”

In order to get to the next step, participants will be asked to put together a CEO (Career, Education, Opportunity) plan detailing what they want to do within the next five years and come up with a strategy to get there, said Williams, who also works for the School of Social Administration’s Center for Social Policy and Community Development’s New Choices/New Options program. The plan will be used as a basis for the other workshops in the series, which runs through the summer, Williams said.

The idea for the programs came when Williams and Monica Hankins-Padilla, assistant director for Temple Volunteers, were guests at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Nonviolence luncheon in Center City. The women talked about doing a series of workshops aimed at helping the community financially and the program blossomed from there, Williams said.

Admission is free and the sessions, which run from 6 to 7:30 p.m., are open to the public.

Dates and topics for the rest of the Financial Recovery series are: April 21, Credit; May 19, Credit Part II; June 16, Mortgages and financing that first home purchase (This session will also include information on Reverse Mortgages for senior citizens); and July 21, Consumer, student and business loans.