By Dexter Hall
In 2019, the City of Waco was selected to participate in the second cohort of cities to receive a CityStart grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund. The CityStart initiative offered a structured approach for the City of Waco and numerous stakeholders from across the city to understand the current state of financial security in Waco.
CFE held an initial financial bootcamp with 13 city and community leaders to obtain information about the current efforts to meet financial empowerment within the city. Subsequent meetings were also held with non-profit leaders, local philanthropic funders, city leadership, and members of the banking community.
Using the data obtained from its initial and subsequent meetings, CFE developed the City of Waco’s Financial Blueprint collaboratively with the City of Waco, Prosper Waco, United Way, and Baylor University culminating around common financial security goals.
Through CFE, financial empowerment has been grouped into four categories, with two added by Waco stakeholders.
Asset Building
Banking Access
Consumer Financial Protection
Financial Education and Counseling
Small Business Development and Financing
Workforce Development and Support
In upcoming editions of this newsletter, we will share more information about each of the six categories and how we will expand each of them to bring greater financial empowerment to our citizens.
If you are interested in collaborating in any of the six financial empowerment categories, please contact Dexter@prosperwaco.org.
Come join the movement as we work together to create greater financial security while decreasing the overall wealth gap for all of our citizens.
Dexter Hall is Prosper Waco’s chief of staff & senior content specialist for financial security.