SUMMERYOUTHCAMPAIGN2010 GRANTS

THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORSCOUNCIL FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CITY

MAYORSFOR FINANCIAL LITERACY

CONTENTS

WELCOME

BATON ROUGELOUISIANA3

CHARLOTTENORTH CAROLINA4

HOUSTONTEXAS5

NORWALKCONNECTICUT6

PHILADELPHIAPENNSYLVANIA7

DollarWI$E // Mayors for Financial Literacy is the official financial

education and literacy effort of The United States Conference

of Mayors and its Council for the New American City. Since its

inception in 2004, mayors and cities across America have made

a commitment to increasing their residents’ financial literacy by

participating in all that DollarWI$E has to offer.

What is the DollarWI$E Summer Youth Campaign?Through mayors’ summer youth employment programs across the

country each year, thousands of youth and young adults get their

first job—and their first paycheck. This watershed event in a young

person’s live is an ideal teachable moment to introduce financial

education and set him/her on a path toward lifelong financial

stability and wise money management.

The goal of the DollarWI$E Summer Youth Campaign is to

make financial education an integral component of every SYEP

job in the country. To this end, DollarWI$E provides interested

cities with support and technical assistance. It also offers its

annual DollarWI$E Summer Youth Campaign grants program.

Underwritten by Bank of America, founding sponsor of DollarWI$E,

in 2010 this grants program offered minigrants of $2,000 each to

five recipient cities across the country. This publication describes

each recipient city’s summer youth employment program and how

the city integrated financial education into it.

THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS

1620 I Street NWWashington, D.C. 20006

202.293.7330202.293.2353 fax

www.usmayors.org

Elizabeth B. KautzMayor of BurnsvillePresident

Antonio R. VillaraigosaMayor of Los AngelesVice President

Michael A. NutterMayor of PhiladelphiaSecond VicePresident

Tom CochranCEO and Executive Director

www.dollarwiseonline.org

dollarwise@usmayors.org

202.861.6759

The City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge’s Summer Youth

Employment Program focuses on providing a structured learning experience

for participants while also developing good work and financial habits in

youth. Participants were placed in jobs within city agencies and private

businesses throughout the area. During the summer, members of the Mayor-

President Kip Holden’s Financial Literacy Coalition presented participants in

the Summer Youth Employment Program a financial literacy seminar titled

“Building A Savings Habit”. The seminar was the cornerstone of their youth

orientation event, which underscored the importance of financial literacy.

By leveraging this existing financial literacy initiative and integrating

it with the Summer Youth Employment Program, the city was able to teach

participants about responsible money management, saving, goal setting,

and budgeting. Those over 18 years old also participated in a smaller session

which included the opportunity to open free savings and checking accounts

onsite during the orientation, provided by a handful of local banks and

credit unions. Youth under 18 were given this same opportunity to open free

checking and savings accounts with their parents.

Baton Rouge used the DollarWI$E Summer Youth Campaign grant

for the next phase of their financial literacy component. Summer Youth

Employment Program participants were given monetary incentives to save as

much money as possible during their employment tenure. Baton Rouge was

also able to leverage their existing bank partnerships to increase the financial

incentive. Incentives kicked in when a participant saved at least $250, when a

$50 incentive from banks and the DollarWI$E grant was provided. In addition

to the financial incentive, participants were also saving for the goal to win

the top saver prize, an Apple iPad. (A second iPad was also given away, but

participating youths were only aware of one at the beginning of summer).

The iPad awardees also received financial management applications from the

iTunes App Store to encourage the continuation of the saving habit.

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MAYOR-PRESIDENT

MELVIN “KIP” HOLDEN

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The Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP) worked with Central

Piedmont Community College (CPCC), Goodwill Industries of the Southern

Piedmont, the Institute for Entrepreneurship, City of Charlotte Community

and Commerce, and the Financial Planning Association (FPA) to incorporate

financial literacy into MYEP for summer 2010. With Goodwill, MYEP launched

Youth Job Connection to provide job and career resources to students

between 14 and 18. Through this program, they explore potential career

opportunities, acquire job readiness skills, and eventually employment.

Participants in the program had to complete a training curriculum, which

included job readiness, basic customer service, and financial education.

Participants also completed a one-day financial literacy session

designed to empower youth with basic financial knowledge such as check

writing, budgeting, tax withholding, and credit. Students opened checking

and savings accounts with direct deposit through local financial institutions.

The DollarWI$E grant was used specifically for a group exercise at

CPCC where 162 individuals participated in a simulation project focused on

improving money management skills. In this simulation, participants took

on the role of a family or an individual facing poverty and other economic

challenges. Each participant must navigate community services, such as

banks, food pantries, employers, pawnbrokers, grocery stores, the welfare

office, police stations, utilities, and rent payment centers, in an attempt

to provide basic necessities and shelter. All of this was based on real-time

poverty statistics and cost-of-living figures and represented those who were

living above the official poverty line. The goal was to have a lasting impact on

youth and develop good savings and money management strategies for life.

The City of Charlotte received matching funds and in-kind donations

for meeting space, staff, training, and materials for financial literacy. Other

partners such as Bank of America and the FPA provided additional training

and explained identity theft and credit card offers for teens.

MAYOR

ANTHONY FOXX

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HoustonWorks USA, along with YouthBuild Houston, The HAYS Center and

the City of Houston, developed a Summer Youth Employment Program that

assists low-income individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 in finding a

summer job. Approximately 700 individuals participated in this program.

HoustonWorks USA’s primary role was to recruit, train, and place these

individuals in various business and organizations which offered a variety

of occupations and work environments. Before being placed into a job,

participants attended seminars on résumé writing, job searching, interview

tips, and dressing for success. Incorporated into this year’s seminars was

a financial education session that addressed wages, taxes, and paychecks

along with credit cards, payday loans, and check cashing.

Through the DollarWI$E grant, HoustonWorks USA incorporated

a financial education component into the program. HoustonWorks USA

utilized materials in the Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards in K12 Personal Finance Education curriculum. The organization used the grant to

supplement printing costs and provide prizes for various competitions that

were designed specifically to excite and engage participants in becoming

more financially literate.

In the future, HoustonWorks USA intends to expand the financial

education component of its Summer Youth Employment Program by offering

additional financial education courses during their program along with

expanding its ability to track what students are learning in the program.

MAYOR

ANNISE PARKER

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The Norwalk Summer Youth Employment Program employs approximately

175 youths between the ages of 14 and 18 during the summer months.

Participants have the opportunity to earn $2,000 each from their jobs.

Prospective participants are interviewed and placed with nonprofits and

businesses within their field of interest where they can learn a specific

profession, navigate the business environment, and earn an income. Prior to

employment, participants spent one week in an intensive pre-employment

workshop where they learn appropriate business etiquette, job readiness,

and employer expectations.

In 2008, a financial literacy component was added to the summer

program by introducing educational sessions on money management,

income and expense management, budgeting, planning, and borrowing

basics. These sessions took place over a period of three weeks and were

expanded thanks to the DollarWI$E grant.

Through the DollarWI$E grant and other financial resources, Norwalk’s

SYEP was able to expand financial education to the families of program

participants in addition to the youth. The goal was to allow the entire family

unit, especially low- to moderate-income families, to develop basic financial

knowledge and take action to improve their own financial situation. Topics

included budgeting, banking, understanding credit reports and correcting

errors, use of credit, avoiding predatory lending, and getting out of debt.

This idea of incorporating the entire family unit in addition to the youth

participant in this expanded financial education program helps reinforce

these values and can lay the seeds to a long-term adoption of these lessons.

MAYOR

RICHARD A. MOCCIA

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The Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board partnered with the

Philadelphia Youth Network and Philadelphia Academies, Inc., to incorporate

financial literacy into its summer youth program. The Philadelphia Youth

Network operates WorkReady, which has a summer program focused

on three different models for youth employment: service learning, work

experience, and internships. The service-learning track allowed participants

to work as a team on an issue impacting the community that had a tangible

benefit to the local and regional community. The work-experience track

allowed participants with little to no previous experience to build work-

readiness skills along with emphasizing academic achievement and its

connection to career advancement. The internship track provided more

sophisticated career exposure for those who have previous work experience

while providing college preparation and developing a work portfolio.

Philadelphia incorporated two financial education components into

the SYEP. The first was a video, “Empowering Youth in Economics: A Tale of

Two Cities”, which was shown during the process of waiting for interviews

and meetings with potential employers at the Philadelphia Youth Network’s

office. Approximately 1,000 participants watched this video.

The second component was “Money Fundamentals” workshops.

These were financial education games that participants that allowed youth

to explore topics with real-world application. These topics included the

connection between education and earnings, developing a budget, and the

impact of personal choices—the costs of going out every week, eating out,

and so on. Approximately 400 youths participated in this program.

The DollarWI$E grant was used for the development of both

components. Philadelphia Academies, Inc., a non-profit which works to

expand life economic opportunities for Philadelphia public-school students

via career-focused programs also supported the development of these

components via in-kind support.

MAYOR

MICHAEL A. NUTTER

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DollarWI$E is dedicated to the

idea that all Americans can benefit

from increased access to financial

education. As individuals improve

their financial literacy, they are better

prepared to build stable families, to

help themselves and their children

gain education, to be productive

members of the workforce, and to

contribute to their communities and

the nation.