Javier Arvelo-Cruz-Santana
July 2, 2012

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith gave the nation's mayors an update on their DollarWI$E Campaign during the closing Plenary Session of The U.S. Conference of Mayors' 80th Annual Meeting in Orlando.

Smith began by applauding DollarWI$E for awarding over three-dozen Innovation and Summer Youth Campaign Grants since its inception in 2004. DollarWI$E has helped cities like San Francisco and Denver establish successful Bank-On programs, which seek to help citizens become "banked." And in Hartford, DollarWI$E is supporting Mayor Segarra's effort to integrate financial education into "community schools" through a network of parents, teachers, community leaders, and young people.

In Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett has instituted a program of financial literacy education into his city's Housing Authority and through DollarWI$E's Innovation Grant, will be able to expand the program to Section 8 voucher recipients.

Additionally, Smith spoke of the DollarWI$E Summer Youth Campaign, which has a goal of incorporating financial education into every summer youth job by 2015. This summer, DollarWI$E has launched a Summer Youth Contest that asks youth from around the country who are participating in a summer jobs program to enroll with DollarWI$E, complete financial education modules online, and win weekly prizes—including iPads, Kindles, and iPods. The contest managed to bring on board the commitment of over 60 mayors, their cities, and their workforce development agencies. "We all agree, it's not just earning your first paycheck that's important," said Smith, "It's understanding what's in it and how to manage it."

Smith also took the opportunity on behalf of all member mayors of the Conference of Mayors to give thanks to Bank of America for its generous funding of DollarWI$E, and encouraged the membership to participate in the DollarWI$E Campaign by supporting local financial education programs, and building local partnerships to expand such programs. He encouraged mayors to begin planning now for DollarWI$E Month in October.