By James Kirby
August 6, 2012

This summer, mayors partnered with the Conference of Mayors DollarWise Campaign and Workforce Development Council to launch its 2012 Summer Youth Jobs Contest. Cities and summer youth jobs programs across the United States were invited to participate in the Contest in an effort to promote financial education in summer youth jobs.

The Summer Youth Jobs Contest was an online, six-week, financial education curriculum designed to help youth plan for their financial future, and to win an assortment of prizes for participating. The contest ran June 22 until July 27. In the sixth week, participants were asked to submit a short video clip on their summer job experience to win additional prizes. The contest was part of a broader initiative designed to help the DollarWise Campaign reach its goal of incorporating a financial education curriculum into every summer youth jobs program in the nation by 2015.

This year, DollarWise selected winners from 14 different cities across the United States. DollarWise encouraged participation from the mayor's office of each city with which it partnered, and asked them to personally present prizes won by participants in the Summer Youth Jobs Contest. Corpus Christi Mayor Joe Adame, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, and Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic each presented DollarWise prizes to the winners of their respective cities. Mayoral presentations from Cincinnati, Baltimore, Wichita, and Oklahoma City will take place in August.

Additional cities that won prizes through the Summer Youth Jobs Contest include: Portland, Boston, North Miami Beach, Dallas, Columbus (GA), Philadelphia, and Tulsa. Overall, DollarWise had over 625 youth participate from more than thirty cities across the United States.

Flyers and other materials were provided to summer youth jobs directors, who were encouraged to promote the contest within their programs. DollarWise also urged directors to include short financial education sessions during their summer youth jobs orientations, and recommend that youth set a summer savings goal and explain what is “in” their first paycheck, e.g. take home pay, federal and state withholding, etc.

Summer youth jobs programs were very excited to be participating in the DollarWise Summer Youth Contest. Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas, in Wichita, served 146 youth in its summer youth jobs program this year and promoted their own contest based on the DollarWise online financial education curriculum. Their program held a raffle where two youth, who completed all of the online modules, each won a laptop computer.

The DollarWise Campaign is pleased and appreciative of the exceptional participation in the Summer Youth Jobs Contest from cities and organizations across the United States. It plans to vastly increase participation, particularly in the number of summer youth employees, during next year's contest.