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TO: Mayor Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Adrienne M. Holloway, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer
DATE: August, 17, 2020
SUBJECT:
A Resolution to amend the grant agreement with the Cities for Financial Empowerment to accept $80,000 in additional funding to support the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center.
PURPOSE:
To increase available financial counseling services at the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center, staff applied to and was subsequently awarded additional funds in the amount of $80,000 to support the addition of one counselor to the Aurora FEC counseling staff.
BACKGROUND:
On December 17, 2019, City Council approved a resolution to accept a two year matching grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment to create a Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) in the city of Aurora. In the approval was the agreement to contract with the Neighbor Project to administer counseling services as part of the Aurora FEC. Subsequent to approval, the Neighbor Project hired staff who then completed requisite training, enabling us to launch the Aurora FEC in May, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.
DISCUSSION:
The Aurora FEC counselors have steadily increased their respective caseloads, providing our residents with much needed counseling services and referral activity to partner agency services. The CFE recognizing the increase in request for counseling services being experienced by FEC's countrywide, successfully secured additional corporate funding that in turn, was made available by application, to current FECs to increase counseling staff. The Innovation Department applied for additional funding and was granted $80,000. A portion of the additional funds, up to $62,000, will be used to augment our current Neighbor Project contract, increasing the contractual amount from $239,454 to up to $301,454. The additional not to exceed amount of $62,000 will fund salary, benefits and technology tools for one additional Aurora FEC counselor for one year. The balance of ...
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