By Staff Writer
July 16, 2012

Jacksonville

The DollarWI$E Campaign visited Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown on June 18 to award the city a Summer Youth Campaign grant to incorporate financial education into the Mayor's Summer Jobs Program (MSJP). In attendance with the mayor were: Grants Administrator Cherrise Wilkes, members of the of the city's Office of Performance Management, and about 175 students who were there to begin their jobs with an orientation that covered workplace behavior and expectations.

MSJP is a six to eight week program designed to employ youth from low-income neighborhoods. The intent is to give participants the opportunity to learn employment skills, and on the job training while contributing to their community through public service.

The curriculum consists of three modules: business etiquette, public service and giving back. Local dignitaries participate as coaches addressing youth about local and global planning. Once training is completed, youth are partnered with experienced public servants to receive on the job training and are shown how gratifying public service can be for internal/external constituents. The public servants serve as mentors to all participants.

Brown arrived shortly after the youth finished watching a movie made for these orientations. Once there, the mayor gave a rousing pep talk to the youth in the room. "Are you excited?" shouted the mayor. "YES!" responded the room.

"I want you guys to look around," Brown continued as he paused to look around the room. "All of you are here because your mayor, your city, and your community care about you and your future. This is an opportunity for you to shine as you begin your working years."

The Summer Youth Campaign grant award will help expand Jacksonville's financial literacy efforts through a three-pronged approach:

• Encouraging long-term savings, educating participants on the benefits of planning for retirement, and providing a hands-on financial workshop during the business module;

• Encouraging savings by incentivizing ten percent of participants who pledge and demonstrate that they saved a minimum of $600 of their earnings during the MSJP; and

• Encouraging the use of technology to decrease the digital divide in low-income households by expanding MSJP participants' knowledge of mobile and online banking, reviewing stocks/savings/retirement strategies, and virtual budget modules.

The DollarWI$E's Summer Youth Campaign seeks to incorporate a financial education component into every summer job in the nation by 2015. Mayors from all over the country have made a commitment to financial education within their summer jobs programs.

Around every November, The U.S. Conference of Mayors DollarWI$E Campaign opens the Summer Youth Campaign Grants application process to member cities of the Conference of Mayots. Five cities are chosen to receive a $4,000 grant each to incorporate a financial literacy component into their summer jobs program. The DollarWI$E Campaign is generously funded by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

In Norfolk on May 26, Mayor Paul Fraim pushed forward with his city's commitment to financial education within its Norfolk Emerging Leaders program (NEL). NEL is a summer jobs program whose goal is to expand opportunities for Norfolk youth to obtain the skills needed for meaningful professional careers and involvement in community service. For six weeks during the summer, youth participants are given work assignments in city departments.

Fraim told NEL participants that their city needed them to make the most out of their opportunity in the summer program. The mayor also took the moment to "wholeheartedly thank The U.S. Conference of Mayors' DollarWI$E Campaign and Bank of America" for their support of his city's summer jobs program.

The DollarWI$E grant will allow Norfolk to expand the existing training module of the NEL program to include a more robust financial literacy component that will include developing a savings plan, opening a checking account, understanding a paycheck and taxes, understanding credit and credit cards, paying bills, and investing and reading stocks. In addition, the financial module will incorporate activities such as a financial literacy fair, role-playing, and financial literacy games as a way to help youth better understand financial planning.