Pueblo Citystart Financial Empowerment Blueprint
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Shelly Dunham City of Pueblo, CO Pueblo CityStart Financial Empowerment Blueprint 2020 CityStart RFP City of Pueblo, CO 1 City Hall Place O: 719-553-2613 Pueblo, CO 81003 Shelly Rae Dunham 1 City Hall Place [email protected] Pueblo, CO 81003 O: 719-553-2613 Printed On: 19 September 2020 2020 CityStart RFP 1 Shelly Dunham City of Pueblo, CO Application Form Summary The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund), with generous support from JPMorgan Chase & Co., is requesting applications for a cohort of local governments looking to develop municipal financial empowerment strategies, with a focus on addressing the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents. Grantees will receive funding of $25,000, and significant technical assistance to develop financial empowerment strategies (financial education and counseling; asset building; access to banking; and consumer protection) and produce an actionable blueprint outlining these efforts over a six-month engagement. The CFE Fund also released a new brief, Navigating From a Good Idea to Public Financial Empowerment Commitments: An Outline of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s CityStart Process, that details how past CityStart grantees leveraged the engagement; interested potential CityStart partners should read the brief for more information on the CityStart initiative. Important Dates & Informational Webinar Important dates: Application release date: July 29, 2020 RFP Informational Webinar: August 11, 2020 Proposal due date: September 14, 2020 Notification of selection: End of September 2020 Project Start: October 2020 Informational Webinar 2 p.m. EST on August 11, 2020 Please click to register for the webinar. Background The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s (CFE Fund’s) mission is to leverage municipal engagement to improve the financial stability of low and moderate-income households by embedding financial empowerment strategies into local government infrastructure. The CFE Fund works with mayoral administrations and those interested in supporting them to implement innovative programs and policies--and measures its success accordingly. (Learn more about the CFE Fund.) Across the country, even in the best of times, Americans struggle with their finances – almost one in five American households have zero, or negative, net worth, and a quarter of families have no retirement savings. Almost 40% of American adults aren’t able to cover a $400 emergency. This current pandemic has brought these financial challenges into focus, and compounded it with a number of new issues: across sectors, workers across the country are being laid off or experiencing reduced hours, are getting sick, or are serving as caretakers for family members in need. 73% of Americans say the pandemic has reduced their Printed On: 19 September 2020 2020 CityStart RFP 2 Shelly Dunham City of Pueblo, CO family income, and 48% say they'd be without any income if they were unable to work because of illness. Mayors and local leaders know that financial empowerment strategies are a fundamental component of emergency response efforts. These services can assist individuals and families in navigating available resources that can support their ability to rebound and rebuild after crisis situations. Grantee Expectations & Eligibility Given the urgency in effectively addressing the financial impact of COVID-19, grantee expectations are: Designating Senior Government Staff Member Leads: Successful partners must designate one or two senior staff members to serve as project leads and be engaged throughout the grant. Given the urgency of developing a financial empowerment blueprint that responds to COVID-19 challenges, the CFE Fund anticipates a 3-5 hour commitment a week for designated leads, especially during the first few months of the engagement. o Leads will be required to attend a series of workshops throughout the engagement to support strategy and blueprint development; join bi-weekly technical assistance phone calls; spearhead decision-making processes with relevant stakeholders; coordinate the landscape analysis; and participate in learning community activities. o The CFE Fund’s experience has demonstrated that successful efforts require project leads with regular access to senior leadership to further efforts. Coordinating Landscape Analysis: Working with the CFE Fund, leads will coordinate efforts to complete the landscape analysis, including scheduling, planning, and actively participating in stakeholder engagement sessions and supporting follow-up work to identify additional information and data needed to develop the strategies and blueprint. Drafting and Releasing the Municipal Financial Empowerment Blueprint: The key deliverable for the CityStart initiative is a blueprint that outlines how the City will use financial empowerment strategies to build resident financial stability, including to help residents deal with the financial impact of COVID-19, that the City will publicly release at the conclusion of the engagement. Leads will identify the financial empowerment strategies outlined in the blueprint, and draft the actual blueprint; some cities may choose to use CFE Fund grant funding to hire a consultant to assist with blueprint writing efforts. The CFE Fund will provide detailed guidance and technical assistance throughout this process. Grantee Eligibility: Cities or Counties with 75,000 or more residents are eligible to apply. (Smaller local governments can reach out to [email protected] to discuss eligibility.) Only city or county governments can apply. The application should be from the Mayor’s or City Manager’s office or from any city agency/department (with the approval of the Mayor and City Manager) working on relevant financial empowerment issues. The 2020 CityStart initiative is appropriate for governments with who are interested in incorporating financial empowerment efforts with their response to COVID-19, including those wanting to start local financial empowerment work, or those looking to further enhance and coordinate existing efforts. Printed On: 19 September 2020 2020 CityStart RFP 3 Shelly Dunham City of Pueblo, CO CityStart The CityStart initiative stems from the CFE Fund’s extensive work with local government leaders, and connects critical on-the-ground insights about the impact of financial instability on families, communities, and municipal budgets with tangible, measurable, and sustainable municipal strategies to improve families’ financial lives. Since the start of the pandemic in March, the CFE Fund has worked with dozens of grantees to pivot their programs or launch new efforts to address the financial impact of COVID-19 – from delivering financial counseling remotely to addressing consumer protection issues to increasing access to online banking. All the while, the CFE Fund has been garnering insights on providing municipal financial empowerment services within governments that are juggling pandemic emergency response, unprecendented budget shortfalls, and responsiveness to police brutality and systemic racism against Black people and other people of color. Since the start of the pandemic in March, the CFE Fund has worked with dozens of grantees to pivot their programs or launch new efforts to address the financial impact of COVID-19 – from delivering financial counseling remotely to addressing consumer protection issues to increasing access to online banking. All the while, the CFE Fund has been garnering insights on providing municipal financial empowerment services within governments that are juggling pandemic emergency response, unprecendented budget shortfalls, and responsiveness to police brutality and systemic racism against Black people and other people of color. Based on these experiences, this year’s CityStart engagement will support local governments in identifying and planning for municipal financial empowerment strategies that meet local needs and context, while addressing the financial impact of COVID-19 on residents; a racial equity lens and deliberate resident engagement strategies will be embedded throughout the process. Financial Empowerment Landscape Analysis: The CFE Fund will work with the local to develop a comprehensive landscape analysis, which includes identifying key stakeholders, understanding the government structure and Administration goals, assessing financial empowerment issues, including those related to COVID-19, and identifying and reviewing related data. Virtual Stakeholder Conversations and Engagement: As part of the landscape analysis, the CFE Fund will help facilitate virtual information-gathering sessions with key local stakeholders, senior municipal staff, philanthropic partners, nonprofit partners, residents, advocates, financial institutions, and community groups. The CFE Fund will facilitate these discussions to help partners identify the local government’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities related to resident financial stability, including addressing the financial impact of COVID-19, ensuring the eventual strategies and blueprint are based on local needs and feedback. Financial Empowerment Strategies & Blueprint: Based on findings from the landscape analysis and stakeholder engagement phase, each local will work with the CFE Fund on developing a municipal financial empowerment blueprint focused on key local needs and priorities, including addressing the financial impact of COVID-19 on residents. Partners can also roll out new strategies/programs during the engagement and before the formal