Explanation
In the Fall of 2019, President Pro Tempore Elizabeth Brown, the Mayor’s Office, and the Columbus Women’s Commission were awarded a CityStart grant from Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund) supporting the creation of a Financial Empowerment Roadmap to help women and families achieve financial security. Prior to the pandemic, one in four women were financially insecure, with women of color facing disproportionate financial challenges. Women have since experienced higher rates of job loss and slower job recovery than men during the economic downturn of the pandemic, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Thus, the financial hardships facing women and families in Columbus have only been deepened since early 2020.
With the knowledge that an extreme economic shock such as a global health crisis could have an outsized impact on families already experiencing financial insecurity, CFE Fund developed a new funding opportunity for existing grantees shortly after the pandemic struck. The City of Columbus applied successfully for $80,000 to launch the Financial Navigator program to support families’ increased need for resource navigation during the health crisis.
The City successfully launched the Financial Navigator program in the Fall of 2020 with the partnership of the Legal Aid Society of Columbus and Lutheran Social Services, enabling residents to seek the help of trained financial navigator staff to understand and connect to new and existing federal, state, and local resources intended to support them through financial struggles.
In 2021, Columbus has received support to develop a plan for investing in free, professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a public service to residents through the Financial Empowerment Center model, particularly of need as they deal with the financial impacts of COVID-19. Columbus is one of 35 local governments across the country that are working with the CFE Fund to offer this proven model, de...
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