City of Rochester
News Release
Mayor Evans Launches the City’s Office of Financial Empowerment
Rochester Joins the First National
Cohort of Financial Empowerment Cities
(Thursday, March
2, 2023) – 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
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News Media:
For more information, contact Communications Director Barbara Pierce at Barbara.Pierce@cityofrochester.gov.