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NEW ORLEANS – The City of New Orleans, along with the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund), today announced its selection as one of seven cities to receive a planning grant and technical assistance to identify and plan for local municipal financial empowerment strategic priorities. The CFE Fund’s CityStart initiative, with support from JPMorgan Chase and others, offers mayors and their administrations a structured approach to identify financial empowerment goals, convene stakeholders for sustainable success, develop concrete strategies, and ultimately craft an actionable blueprint rooted in local priorities and opportunities.
The City of New Orleans will receive an intensive 6-9-month technical assistance engagement partnership, along with a $20,000 planning grant. In addition to the City of New Orleans, other selected cities chosen through a competitive process include Birmingham, AL; Columbus, OH; Jackson, MS; Jersey City, NJ; Madison, WI; and Waco, TX.
“The Administration is committed to taking an evidence-based approach to empower the people of New Orleans to keep their fair share of what they earn, build their savings, and make wise investment decisions, so they can achieve a higher quality of life than the generations that came before them,” said Gilbert Montaño, Chief Administrative Officer for the City of New Orleans. “We are grateful to Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund and JPMorgan Chase for their support as we work to improve the financial stability of our residents.”
The City of New Orleans is part of the second cohort of CityStart partners for the CFE Fund. In 2018, the CFE Fund competitively selected its inaugural cohort of CityStart cities: Albuquerque, NM; Anchorage, AK: Dallas, TX; Durham, NC; El Paso, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Portland, OR; Rochester, NY; Saint Paul, MN; and Tulsa, OK. These partners have since created blueprints that outline their administration’s public vision for integrating financial empowerment efforts within local government infrastructure – some working to open an Office of Financial Empowerment to serve as a platform for overall efforts, some identifying strategies centered around a specific municipal priority such as affordable housing, and some replicating existing programs such as the Financial Empowerment Center FEC Public initiative.
“Cities control a host of policies, programs, and funding streams that can transform the lives of residents with low incomes on a large scale. Across the nation, more and more city leaders are turning to innovative financial empowerment strategies to improve the financial stability of their residents,” said Jonathan Mintz, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. “We congratulate the City of New Orleans and look forward to working with Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Administration to empower City of New Orleans residents, and we thank JPMorgan Chase for their longstanding partnership and investment in municipal financial empowerment.”
JPMorgan Chase’s support of CFE Fund is part of the bank’s $125 million, five-year commitment to improving the financial health of people in the U.S. and across the world, especially those in underserved communities.
“JPMorgan Chase is committed to giving the people of New Orleans access to the tools they need to better manage their financial lives. We are pleased to support CFE Fund as part of our work to help New Orleanians improve their financial health,” said Greg Rattler, an executive director in JPMorgan Chase’s government banking division.
The CityStart initiative draws on the CFE Fund’s extensive programmatic work with local government leaders in over 80 cities, connecting critical on-the-ground insights about the impact of financial instability on families, communities, and municipal budgets with tangible, measurable, and sustainable municipal strategies to improve families' financial lives. The City of New Orleans, working with the CFE Fund, will craft its municipal financial empowerment blueprint identifying actionable implementation steps based on the financial needs of residents, key mayoral priorities and partnership opportunities. Development of the blueprint will be based on a series of briefings with key stakeholders and a “boot camp” event that brings together key local constituencies, including leaders from city agencies, local funders, community organization partners, and financial institution representatives. CityStart cities have historically leveraged their engagement with the CFE Fund to further their commitment to this work.
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