Overview

Key Takeaway

Cities can strategically and sustainably embed financial empowerment into the architecture of summer youth employment programs.

The Summer Jobs Connect (SJC) initiative, generously supported by Citi Foundation, leverages the scale and infrastructure of Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) to offer banking access and other financial empowerment opportunities, helping to transform a summer job into an on-ramp to the financial mainstream.

This three-report compendium details city partners’ strategies to provide banking access and targeted financial education through SYEPs, and how they are sustainably and systemically integrating these efforts. These reports highlight three distinct strategies that partner cities used to refine and improve their programs during the second programmatic year. Brief One focuses on direct deposit and financial education efforts; Brief Two describes the use of incentives in SJC programs; and Brief Three details structural changes for sustainability.

Additional Takeaways

Cities used many strategies to enroll participants in direct deposit, partner for appropriate accounts, and use financial education to support good banking behaviors.

Partners used incentives to encourage banking and savings; payroll and program infrastructure affect incentive successes.

Policymakers are taking notice of cities’ structural changes to SYEPs to sustainably embed financial empowerment.

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