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Aurora Financial Empowerment Center Fund

Established 2022

Aurora Financial Empower Center Logo - Free One-on-One Financial Counseling

The City of Aurora Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) provides no-cost, high-quality, one-on-one financial counseling for low -and moderate-income residents as a free public service.

The Aurora Financial Empowerment Center Fund was established through the Community Foundation to support the mission and work to enhance program services that aim to reduce the social and racial wealth gap and offer greater financial mobility to Aurora residents. The goal of the Aurora FEC is to empower people towards financial freedom by investing in human development and quality of life.

Aurora is the 2nd largest city in the state with an extremely diverse community; however, over 11% of residents have incomes below the federal poverty level and approximately 35% live paycheck to paycheck.  Female-led households account for the highest impacted with 25.6% falling below poverty line.

Aurora opened Illinois’ first Financial Empowerment Center and has plans for growth and expansion. Since launching in 2020, the Aurora FEC, a partnership between the City of Aurora, The Neighbor Project and Cities for Financial Empowerment, has helped thousands of residents reduce millions of dollars in household debt, increase savings and improve their credit scores.  In 2022 they received the distinguished title of Expert City by Bloomberg Philanthropies Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund for their service excellence.

Financial counseling works well as a public service and the City of Aurora is committed to improving the quality of life of its residents.  Aurora FEC services are funded through City of Aurora funds, grants, and in-kind contributions from sponsors and donors to provide no-cost services to residents. Partnerships and collaborations between local government, community-based organizations and philanthropy is foundational for counseling delivery, resident engagement, outcome achievement and program sustainability.

To learn more about the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center program visit their website.

ABOUT THE FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT CENTER PROGRAM

Piloted in New York City, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2008, the Financial Empowerment Center model operated for 10 years, in 7 cities working with more than 82,000 clients helping them reduce debt by more than $100 million and increasing savings by $10 million.  The project evaluation revealed that despite significant financial obstacles and low-incomes, people who had access to free financial counseling services succeeded in reducing debt, improving credit, opening bank accounts and event saving for emergencies and for their future.

The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund was established in 2012 as a national nonprofit organization that provides startup funding and technical assistance to mayors and their teams to develop, launch, replicate, test and embed financial empowerment strategies into local government infrastructure.  To learn more about the CFE Fund, visit their website at www.cfefund.org.

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Donor & Fund Advisor

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Scholarship Committee Member and Board Member

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Madi Porter

YEP Member

I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Zari Foundation Scholarship and the Community Foundation in supporting my education. I am majoring in mechanical engineering with a concentration in aerospace engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institue of Technology. In my spare time, I volunteer on campus, in the community and I’m also the principal violist in the symphony orchestra. I hope to make an impact on the next chapter of space exploration by eventually working at a groundbreaking aerospace company such as SpaceX or NASA.

Taytum Newell

Albert M. Zari Scholarship Recipient

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