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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Behati Hart, Director Innovation & Strategy
DATE: 1/26/2023
SUBJECT:
A resolution authorizing the City to accept a $10,000 grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund for the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center's Supervitamin Effect workforce research study.
PURPOSE:
The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund grant will be used to support operational costs for the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center's (FEC) Supervitamin Effect workforce research study. The research study is to determine whether workforce development programs that integrate financial counseling at the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center into their service offerings improve a client's financial goals.
BACKGROUND:
The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, Inc. (the "CFE Fund") previously provided a grant to the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center (the "FEC") to operate their Financial Empowerment Center. Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization, has been hired by the CFE Fund to undertake a study of whether, all else being equal, workforce development programs that integrate FEC financial counseling into their offerings achieve more or better outcomes than programs that do not. In 2022 the CFE Fund approved a new program partnership between the FEC and Quad County Urban League (the "QCUL"), a workforce development program serving customers in job readiness, training and placement services, to participate in the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund workforce research study. The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund has contracted with the FEC and QCUL to participate in the workforce research study by providing financial counseling following the FEC model to current and recent clients in existing job readiness, training and placement services. In addition to their regular services, the FEC and QCUL will recruit clients to join the study.
DISCUSSION:
The success...
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