Hartford, New Haven to Receive Funds to Help Residents Navigate Financial Challenges From COVID

National nonprofit organization the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund), in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Citi Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and the Wells Fargo Foundation, has announced that more than 50 city and county partner governments across the country – including New Haven and Hartford - are set to offer financial counseling and financial navigation services for their local residents in need.

As part of this effort, the CFE Fund announced the selection of 31 city and county governments to launch a new Financial Navigator initiative, which will provide their residents one-on-one remote sessions to help navigate the financial impact of COVID-19 through access to local, state, and federal resources. Hartford is among the cities taking part in the new initiative.

The CFE Fund also announced an expansion of its ongoing Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) initiative, which offers professional, data-driven one-on-one financial counseling as a public service, funding additional counselors in FEC partner cities, as well as pivoting its national FEC infrastructure to accommodate remote services. These new and enhanced financial navigation and counseling services come in the face of increasing individual and family, with some FEC cities already experiencing as much as a 40% increase in demand for financial counseling services.  New Haven is among the cities participating in the FEC program.

The new Financial Navigators program is designed to help residents deal with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing remote assistance in navigating critical financial issues and making referrals to other social services and resources.

Financial Navigator partners each receive $80,000 in grant funding, technical assistance, and training to launch a new public Financial Navigators program. Financial Navigator services will be delivered over the phone; Navigators will help clients address their financial concerns ranging from prioritizing payments to negotiating with creditors to enrollment into benefits programs. Services will be free for all residents.

Trained Financial Navigators will provide structured guidance over the phone that will help people strategize around supports for disruptions to their income and other financial concerns, according to officials. They will help residents triage financial issues, identify immediate action steps, and make referrals to other services.

“We’re grateful to our many partners rising to the enormous challenge of responding to the waves of demand for financial counseling and navigation from people across the country impacted economically by COVID-19,” said Jonathan Mintz, CFE Fund President and CEO. “Increasingly, local leaders are deploying financial empowerment efforts as a core part of their front-line COVID-19 response. We particularly want to thank Bloomberg Philanthropies, Citi Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and the Wells Fargo Foundation for making this possible.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic is not just an unprecedented public health crisis that has cost over 160,000 Americans their lives – it’s also an unprecedented economic crisis that has left millions devastated financially, with many questioning how they’re going to provide the next meal for their families,” said Patricia E. Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies. “We’re glad to support the CFE Fund in their work to reduce the income inequality that has made the impact of this crisis far worse, and to provide people across the country with the tools and skills they need to survive this pandemic – and be more financially stable once it’s over.

Hartford is one of three Financial Navigator grantees in the Northeast; the others are Boston and Mount Vernon, NY. Other communities across the country include: Albuquerque, NM; Anchorage, AK; Baltimore County, MD; Birmingham, AL; Brownsville, TX; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; City of Fremont/Alameda County, CA; Gaithersburg, MD; Glynn County, GA; Hawai’i County, HI; Jacksonville, FL; Little Rock, AR: Los Angeles County, CA; Louisville, KY; Madison, WI; Milwaukee, WI; Pueblo, CO; Richmond, VA; Riverside County, CA; Tempe, AZ; Topeka, KS; Tulsa, OK; Waco, TX; Washington, DC; and Washtenaw County, MI.

The CFE Fund supports municipal efforts to improve the financial stability of households by leveraging opportunities unique to local government. By translating cutting edge experience with large scale programs, research, and policy in cities of all sizes, the CFE Fund assists mayors and other local leaders to identify, develop, fund, implement, and research pilots and programs that help families build assets and make the most of their financial resources.

First piloted in New York City under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2008, existing FECs across the country have served over 108,000 clients, helping them reduce individual debt by over $150 million, and increasing their families’ savings by more than $23 million.  As part of its FEC Public platform, the CFE Fund will be expanding FEC services, and pivoting to remote services across all 20 operational FECs, including in New Haven.

FECs provide professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a free public service. In partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Citi Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and the Wells Fargo Foundation, the CFE Fund supported additional FEC counselors to meet the increased demand. In addition, the funding supported a number of enhancements to the national FEC Public infrastructure so that services could be offered remotely, such as developing electronic consent forms and creating new COVID-related indicators to help partners better track counselor efforts and report on FEC impact, officials noted.

 “The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound economic repercussions on individuals across the U.S.,” said Brandee McHale, Head of Citi Community Investing and Development and President of the Citi Foundation. “Partnering with the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund to expand vital financial tools and services will help our local communities navigate the financial impacts of the pandemic and aid in our collective economic recovery.”

“The pandemic has clearly heightened awareness around the financial hardships that so many people were already facing in the U.S. and deep disparities that exist in society,” said Darlene Goins, head of financial health philanthropy with the Wells Fargo Foundation. “We applaud the CFE Fund for bringing together local governments, philanthropists, and financial services and other industries to reimagine solutions that can help improve financial stability and resiliency for individuals and families, particularly during this economic crisis.”

“Sound financial health is a critical component of addressing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on low-income and diverse communities in the U.S,” said Sarah Bainton Kahn, VP of Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We are pleased to collaborate with the CFE Fund to help people in the US access the tools and services they need to build resiliency and advance their financial health.”

Nationwide, the CFE Fund is currently working in over 100 cities, and has disbursed over $42 million to city governments and their partners to support these efforts.