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ABOUT CFE COALITION
CFE Coalition Member Cities
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New York City
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In collaboration with Mayor Bloomberg’s Center for Economic Opportunity the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE)
leads citywide initiatives to educate, empower and protect New Yorkers with low incomes. OFE leads targeted advocacy and enforcement efforts to protect consumers from predatory
and unfair practices, while collaborating with financial education providers to build capacity and improve quality of financial education services throughout New York City. OFE
spearheads large-scale public awareness campaigns, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Coalition Campaign which distributed two million brochures in 12 languages and
increased access to free and low-cost tax preparation assistance in the most recent tax season. OFE is also partnering with financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, and
philanthropies to pilot innovative programs to help consumers save and manage their money safely and smartly.
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Link to the Office of Financial Empowerment
Open an NYC SafeStart Account
Download NYC Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment: A Progress Report on the First Three Years, 2006–2009 (in PDF)
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San Francisco
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San Francisco’s financial empowerment work is spearheaded
by the Office of the Treasurer, with support from the Mayor’s Office. Through the Working Families Credit program (WFC), the city funds a local
match to the Earned Income Tax Credit. Originally designed to encourage all San Franciscans to maximize their tax refunds, the WFC has now been
expanded to increase access to benefits and encourage savings (through split refunds and a savings bond option). San Francisco also created a
groundbreaking program to bank the unbanked. The Bank on San Francisco initiative works with financial institutions to provide better access to
the mainstream by changing bank policies and products, and supporting clients with financial education. Current work is focused on expanding this
initiative to include alternatives to payday lending, a companion savings effort, and a strong financial education program.
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Link to the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector
Link to Bank on San Francisco
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Chicago
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Chicago's financial empowerment initiative is spearheaded by the Office of the City Treasurer.
Building on the office’s current efforts on community programs, the initiative is focused on three areas: Youth,
Family/Community, and Small Business. Each of these areas focuses on building public-private partnerships around the
areas of financial education, increasing opportunities to access financial services, and developing innovative
asset-building products.
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Link to the Office of the City Treasurer
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Los Angeles
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“At this time of change and challenge nationwide, it is the responsibility of leaders across the
United States to take bold, decisive action to ensure that our working families have the tools to weather today’s storm
and prepare for a brighter tomorrow. Along with our partners in the CFE coalition, we will bring new ideas and a fresh
vision to the table, and provide our families with the resources and assets to build a stable foundation for financial
success long into the future.”
- Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa
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Link to the City of Los Angeles
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Miami
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Under the umbrella of ACCESS Miami (Assets, Capital, Community, Education,
Savings and Success), the City of Miami focuses on combining city resources with those available in
the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. ACCESS Miami is comprised of four main elements:
1) access to existing benefits; 2) access to capital; 3) building wealth and accumulating assets; and
4) improving financial literacy. Services include free tax preparation, an online counselor-assisted
platform called the Benefits Bank to simplify access to local, state and federal benefits, an Individual
Development Account (IDA) program funded by city and federal dollars, and a small business micro-lending
program. Current efforts are focused on a financial counseling program which will guide clients through
the asset building cycle from establishing a bank account and basic savings, to eventual home ownership
and retirement savings.
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Link to Access Miami
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Newark
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Newark’s financial empowerment mission is coordinated out of the Office of the Deputy
Mayor for Economic Development. Working closely with Newark Now, a nonprofit founded by Cory Booker before he
became mayor, the City works to economically empower residents by supporting initiatives that increase access
to benefits, save residents precious dollars, help build assets, and provide financial education to the
community at large. Initiatives include financial and legal counseling, a robust VITA program, and an IDA fund
that matches deposited savings for eligible residents. The City of Newark also brings innovative financial
empowerment opportunities to Newarkers through initiatives including a Bank On Newark campaign, which aims to
remove obstacles that block un-banked Newarkers from opening bank accounts and to expose residents to mainstream
financial relationships; and a Financial Helpline that brought volunteers with finance backgrounds into the
City's 311 call center to answer residents’ personal finance questions for free.
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Link to the City of Newark
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Providence
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The City of Providence’s financial empowerment work is led by Mayor Cicilline’s new
Pathways to Opportunity Office. The mission of the office is to increase mobility into the middle class by
increasing opportunities for low-income families to build their incomes and financial assets while decreasing
barriers to economic mobility. The office has five action areas: 1) helping low-wage workers to improve skills
and obtain quality jobs; 2) connecting youth to jobs and college; 3) “making work pay” by increasing access to
key work support programs; 4) reducing the “high cost of being poor” by creating affordable financial services
for low-wage residents, increasing access to financial literacy, and reducing predatory lending and other
high-cost practices; and 5) preventing poverty in future generations by providing universal access to
high-quality early childhood programs, reducing teen pregnancy, and providing intensive support services to
parenting teens.
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Link to the City of Providence
Download the report "Pathways to Opportunity: Building Prosperity in Providence" (In PDF)
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San Antonio
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San Antonio’s financial empowerment programs are housed in the Department of Community
Initiatives, which has responsibility for family economic success and promoting economic self-sufficiency. The city’s
Family Economic Success program provides opportunities to increase assets through accessing tax credits, encouraging
savings and promoting financial education. San Antonio’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is the second
largest in the country and, in addition to providing free tax preparation, VITA sites link clients to local, state and
federal benefits, savings products, suitable banking services, financial education and a city-funded IDA program. San
Antonio has created some of the country’s most innovative programs, such as an alternative refund anticipation loan, a
vehicle purchase program in partnership with Ford Motors, a foreclosure prevention program and an alternative payday
loan product offered through a local credit union in partnership with Goodwill Industries.
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Link to the Department of Community Initiatives
Link to Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, San Antonio, Texas
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Savannah
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The City of Savannah manages its poverty reduction efforts through a powerful
coalition called Step Up Savannah which combines the strengths of government, business and nonprofit
agencies. Step Up Savannah was created to combat persistent poverty, and asset building was identified
as a key factor in this effort. The Chatham Savannah Asset Development Coalition serves as the Step Up
Action Team which coordinates the city’s VITA sites and leads its IDA efforts. Savannah’s tax preparation
program has seen a 300% increase in the amount of EITC funds received by their clients; the city plans
to add an Alternative Refund Anticipation Loan (ARAL) to their current available services this tax season.
Step Up Savannah has been working closely with nine employers to bring tax assistance to their low-wage
workers. Savannah has also created a banking task force to allow residents better access to the financial
mainstream and currently has 12 banks and credit unions supporting these efforts.
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Link to Step Up Savannah
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Seattle
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The City of Seattle builds its financial empowerment efforts around the philosophy
that there should be “no wrong door” for accessing the full range of available services. The city focuses
on key building blocks, including access to multiple public benefits, access to appropriate financial
services such as checking accounts, non-predatory loans, and financial education, and job training and
advancement. In collaboration with partners, Seattle currently supports free tax preparation services,
IDAs, access to benefits through the PeoplePoint system, credit repair services and home ownership
opportunities. In 2008, the city plans to launch a “Bank on Seattle”-style initiative and support the
launch of a credit union for low-income people. Seattle also started two innovative pilot programs
designed to deliver the full range of services to two target groups: families transitioning from
homelessness and families on the verge of self-sufficiency. The city is also launching an effort to work
with employers to offer benefits and financial services to their lower-income employees. The Seattle/King
County Asset Building Collaborative was created to develop and implement some of these strategies.
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Link to Seattle.gov
Link to Bank on Seattle-King County
Link to Seattle-King County Asset Building Collaborative
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