Monroe NY News

Mayor Malik D. Evans announced today the launch of the City of Rochester’s Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE). The Office will collaborate with partners to support financial wellness for city residents by providing financial counseling into community services; promoting opportunities and incentives for homeownership; supporting entrepreneurs in launching, growing and sustaining successful and profitable businesses with access to affordable capital; and providing city youth with financial education.

The Mayor also announced that the City of Rochester has been selected by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund as one of six municipal governments chosen for an inaugural cohort of Financial Empowerment Cities.

“Financial stability is the foundation of economic mobility,” said Mayor Evans. “It behooves all of us to provide people with the education and resources necessary to successfully reach their financial goals, and the OFE offers numerous programs designed to do just that. I am grateful to Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund for selecting Rochester as a Financial Empowerment City, and providing additional perspectives and resources to Rochester’s toolbox.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored the critical role that local government can – and must – play in building residents’ financial stability,” said Jonathan Mintz, President and CEO of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. “An Office of Financial Empowerment, with dedicated leadership, is more than the sum of important individual programs – it’s a catalyst for truly embedding financial empowerment work across government. The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund congratulates Rochester, and is thrilled to partner with Mayor Malik D. Evans to launch and lead this new Office.”

The City’s existing Financial Empowerment Programs, some of which operated previously under the previous administration’s “Office of Community Wealth Building,” have already made a positive impact for the residents of Rochester. The Rochester Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) provides free, one-on-one, personal and business financial counseling, and has served more than 2,000 clients to cumulatively increase savings by more than $1.6 million and reduce residents’ debts by more than $2.4 million. Kiva Rochester provides 0% interest loans and Business and Asset Development resource navigation services for small businesses, and to-date has provided more than $1 million to nearly 180 businesses. The City’s 150 youth participants in its annual Summer of Opportunities Program receive financial education, and has encouraged more than half of its participants to split their earnings between checking and savings accounts.

The City’s Office of Financial Empowerment received a $170,000 grant from the Cities Financial Empowerment Fund to support its launch. It also received two grants totaling $550,201 from Living Cities, thanks to support from Citi Foundation and Wells Fargo Foundation to break down barriers to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in homeownership and entrepreneurship. Additional grants are expected to be obtained in the months and years ahead.

To learn more about the services and programs offered through the City of Rochester’s Office of Financial Empowerment, or to complete the OFE survey about how the office can best meet your financial goals, visit https://www.cityofrochester.gov/OFE/.

The City of Rochester administration of Mayor Malik D. Evans is committed to promoting positive systemic and structural change by providing transparent and collaborative leadership, offering equitable access to essential municipal services, enabling productive intergovernmental, private, and non-profit partnerships, and promoting increased quality of life through investments that create vibrant neighborhoods and employment opportunities, making Rochester a hope-filled city with an exciting future. For more information, visit http://www.cityofrochester.gov.

About the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund)

The CFE Fund supports municipal efforts to improve the financial stability of households by leveraging opportunities unique to local government. By translating cutting-edge experience with large scale programs, research, and policy in cities of all sizes, the CFE Fund assists mayors and other local leaders to identify, develop, fund, implement, and research pilots and programs that help families build assets and make the most of their financial resources. The CFE Fund is currently working in over 100 cities and counties representing 75 million people, and has disbursed over $60 million to city governments and their partners to support these efforts. For more information, please visit www.cfefund.org or follow us on Twitter at @CFEFund.aasn

News Media: For more information, contact Communications Director Barbara Pierce at Barbara.Pierce@cityofrochester.gov.

Original source can be found here.