In September 2018, the City of Rochester Mayor’s Office of Community Wealth Building (“OCWB”) was awarded a grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund to plan for the launch of the Financial Empowerment Centers (“FEC”) program in 2019. The model, first piloted in New York City under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2008, provides free, professional, one-on-one financial counseling as a public service. At the end of the planning grant period, no later than July 31, 2019, the OCWB will submit a final implementation proposal including the selection of the Financial Counseling Provider sought via this Request for Qualifications.
Through the program, highly-trained, full-time financial counselors will work with clients to help them better manage their finances, reduce debt, establish and/or improve credit, build savings and assets, and access safe and affordable banking products. Counseling services will be integrated into existing social service streams throughout the community in an effort to create numerous entry points into the system, and positively impact the outcomes of partner organizations. Client data will be systematically collected and tracked across a set of defined and measurable outcomes to understand the impact on clients, bolster program credibility, and justify sustainable sources of funding.
Financial Empowerment Centers are operated as a public service in which the service provision is performed by a non-profit organization under contract with the city government. The City of Rochester will be responsible for conducting marketing and outreach for the program, managing partnerships, fundraising, data reporting, and general program implementation and management. The duties of the non-profit contractor are to manage the day-to-day operations of the program, provide support for program development to the City program manager, conduct marketing and outreach, and other activities required to sustain the program. Upon selection of the Counseling Provider, the City program manager will work collaboratively with Non-Profit staff to develop a full scope of work and operations strategy.
For more information on the Financial Empowerment Centers Replication Initiative, please visit:
www.fecpublic.org.
Respondents can also qualify for an additional 10% as a City Firm, an additional 10% as a MWBE firm, an additional 5‐10% for MWBE sub consultant utilization, and an additional 10% for internal minority workforce utilization.
