Service to our community–it’s some of the best work we can do.

It restores us as individuals. And it inspires us as a corporation.

It demonstrates that, as members of the communities we serve, our claim to valuing relationships has substance. That relationships are, in fact, the very heart of our company.

Last year, Southwest Bank of Texas employees donated countless personal hours to worthy causes throughout the Greater Houston area.

That’s no surprise to us. Just another indicator of the quality of the individuals who choose to work here.

And we’ve been busy as a corporation, too. In year 2000:

We continued our business and corporate relationship with KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Academy Charter School. We are particularly proud of KIPP’s national recognition as a leader in education—culminating with the school’s on-stage appearance at the Republican National Convention. Our hats are off to the accomplishments that the faculty, staff and student body have worked so hard to achieve. And we remain committed to helping KIPP grow to even greater success.

Our fourth annual Houston Ministerial Conference grew to “standing-room-only” proportions. More than 250 respected clergy and community leaders attended this day-long conference to learn about available community development loans and how to access them. They will share this knowledge within their respective communities.

And Southwest Bank of Texas Chairman Walter Johnson personally committed to raise $18 million to benefit more than 65,000 at-risk youths in the Houston area through local chapters of the Boy Scouts of America and their scouting programs.

Our ongoing pledge to our communities is to listen. Respond by doing what we can. And then do even more.

To help create a prosperity that can only be accounted for in the sustained health and happiness of our neighborhoods.

1 LENDING SUPPORT Southwest Bank of Texas co-founded the Third Coast Community Development Corporation—a not-for-profit alliance of area businesses and business leaders dedicated to helping viable but at-risk businesses succeed. Third Coast targets small, promising, minority-owned businesses serving their communities, struggling to grow, with loans in partnership with traditional banking institutions. With each $35,000 loaned, businesses must add at least one new employee, thus creating a positive impact in the community as we help enable their growth. With Southwest Bank of Texas as a key participant, Third Coast has, to date, infused businesses with loans of up to $100,000 in partnership with seven area banks.

2 A CREDIT TO THE COMMUNITY Southwest Bank of Texas continues the positive outreach and support of the Houston Credit Coalition—a unique educational program directed at helping lower-income consumers access available resources and use credit wisely. The free, six-week, 15 hour course focuses on building and maintaining creditworthiness, as well as recovering from past mistakes … and how to avoid those pitfalls in the future. More than 500 mostly lower-income families and individuals have graduated from the program. The success of the Credit Coalition has recently attracted the attention of the National Community Reinvestment Corporation and resulted in a unique alliance for support and possible expansion in collaboration with this organization.

3 REBUILDING DREAMS The unprecedented development and re-development of Houston’s inner-city neighborhoods continu-ally threatens to displace many of these communities’ longtime, lower-income residents. In response, Southwest Bank of Texas supports numerous efforts to help. One example is our work with the Avenue Community Development Corporation in its mission to build affordable housing in Houston’s historic, yet rapidly gentrifying, First and Sixth Wards. As with other projects of this kind, Southwest Bank of Texas has contributed not simply cash, but invaluable assistance in applying for and securing available grants, as well as providing construction and permanent project financing. Our participation in this Sixth Ward project has helped to provide 74 new, affordable housing units that will help keep one of Houston’s oldest and most diverse neighborhoods whole.

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