ELGL19 Session: Financial Empowerment through Local Government

Breakout: Financially Empowering Individuals & Families through Local Government

In the last ten years, cities and counties across the country have come to realize that residents’ financial instability is an issue of such importance, and relevance, that it cannot continue to be relegated to the nonprofit sector to solve. Unstable personal finances are often why people seek help from various social services, or why that help doesn’t always stick. To meet these underlying economic and political challenges, local governments have begun running high quality public financial counseling programs, launching children’s savings accounts for college, connecting workers to safe and affordable banking accounts, and more. This session will provide an overview from leaders of this field on why and how local governments are responding to the mandate of financial empowerment, and how to identify potential political and programmatic starting points to do so successfully. Using examples from the almost 70 cities that are engaged in this work including Lansing, MI, the session will also discuss how municipalities can launch and sustain this work, moving from public-private partnerships to public funding.

Speakers:


Jonathan Mintz President & CEO Cities for Financial Empowerment Twitter	Amber Paxton Office of Financial Empowerment Director Lansing, MI LinkedIn	Shekeria Brown Vice President Office of Nonprofit Engagement at JPMorgan Chase LinkedIn

Track: Equity & Economic Inclusion

Across the country our communities have people that have been left behind or not included in the success or opportunity of our cities. More and more governments are working to right these wrongs. From helping formerly incarcerated residents transition back to the workforce to ensuring long time residents have the same access to resources that newcomers get, equity and inclusion is at the heart of solving these problems. Learn from communities that are working in this space and from organizations that have ideas worth stealing.