By James Kirby
September 17, 2012

This summer, mayors partnered with The U.S. Conference of Mayors DollarWise Campaign and Workforce Development Council to launch its 2012 Summer Youth Jobs Contest.

DollarWise worked closely with mayors across the country and WDC Youth Committee Chairman Andrew McGough to promote the contest. To participate, youth were required to go online to the DollarWise website (http://www.bedollarwise.org) to complete a set of brief financial education modules. Completing these modules automatically entered youth into a weekly raffle, held every Friday from June 22 until July 27. Three participants each week were picked to win an assortment of prizes. 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.

This year, over seven hundred youth from eighty-nine cities participated in the contest. DollarWise selected winners from 14 different cities across the U.S.

Mayors of participating cities encouraged programs to participate, and personally presented prizes won by participants in the Summer Youth Jobs Contest. Corpus Christi Mayor Joe Adame, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, North Miami Beach Mayor George Vallejo, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino each presented DollarWise prizes to the winners in their respective cities.

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.

As a final component of the Summer Youth Jobs Contest, DollarWise also held a video competition. Youth were invited to submit a short video explaining how they used the money that they earned from their summer job to save for their future. Out of the eight videos sent in, three winners were selected to win DollarWise prizes. The first, second, and third place winners were from Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Wichita.

Several summer youth jobs programs partnered with DollarWise on this project. Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas in Wichita served 146 youth in its summer youth jobs program and gave their own prizes to youth who completed the DollarWise online curriculum. Their program held a raffle where two youth, who completed all of the online modules, each won a laptop computer.