Overview

Key Takeaway

Municipal financial empowerment supports positive youth development.

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 Research Brief details SJC youth participants’ views on financial empowerment, as explored in focus groups across partner cities, and highlights how financial empowerment can support positive youth development (PYD) efforts. PYD describes ideal outcomes for youth, as well as the processes through which they achieve these outcomes.

This brief follows upon a three-report compendium detailing our SJC city partners’ strategies to provide banking access and targeted financial education as part of their local SYEP, and how they are working to sustainably integrate these efforts into SYEP systems.

Additional Takeaways

Financial knowledge and skills are key PYD positive pathways.

Youth see financial empowerment as critical to their own personal development.

Involving youth voices in program design ensures SYEP financial education is relevant to their interests.

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