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This Financial Empowerment Blueprint is intended to communicate a strategy to counter the historic socio- economic disadvantages imposed on the population of Black people residing in the City of South Bend. These strategic initiatives would develop growth support through workforce development, financial management supports though the establishment of a Financial Empowerment Center, located in the newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and catalyze a wealth-building economic engine to leverage a multi- generational investment in the financial empowerment of South Bend’s Black population. To this end, the City of South Bend applied for and received a grant through the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s (CFE Fund) City Start initiative to plan and craft a comprehensive Blueprint to guide South Bend’s equity initiatives. Economic, environmental, judicial, and legislative justice initiatives have been interwoven into the social-aid programs available to South Bend residents for decades. The most recent push began with the Prosperity Now Report shared in 2017, and in recent years there have been significant victories. One legislative victory of note was the Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program launched in 2021, to set economic inclusion goals on the City’s approximately $150 million-dollar discretionary budget. Through this Financial Empowerment Blueprint grant and reviews of previous initiatives, the City officials analyzed the challenges minority and women-owned businesses experience with staffing, labor in predominantly Black neighborhoods receiving significantly lower wages, and experiencing significantly higher unemployment rates during economic downturns. In addition, business value, home value, and income averages in predominantly Black neighborhoods are less than 50% of averages for the City of South Bend. Data shows that home values in predominantly Black neighborhoods could be improved through a large-scale infill housing campaign using neighborhood labor, the introduction of financial products to grow homeownership, a unified resource hub where all residents feel supported and are supported with the tools begin the economic revitalization of their neighborhoods. To support the needed revitalization, the City of South Bend has worked to develop a new Opportunity Fund for small business grants, grown the City’s revolving loan by $7.7 million dollars, offered a substantial portion of the Community Block Development Grant Funding to Community Development Corporations with South Bend roots who build infill housing, and established a Community Development Financial Institution liaison agency to better connect business owners to effective financial products. To address the wage gap the City has established workforce development agreements with large employers to increase wages for workers who complete essential leadership trainings, and has been awarded the CityStart Grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE Fund) to establish the framework for community-centered financial empowerment with a racial wealth equity focus. As the outcomes of the Financial Empowerment Blueprint mature the City of South Bend will engage with residents to continue infill housing to stabilize at-risk neighborhoods. The initiatives outlined in this Blueprint specifically address the financial and wealth-building needs of youth, workers, asset builders, and seniors to build an equitable future. When implemented, this document will encourage the enhancement of city services, serve as a guide for the establishment of partnerships to address financial management support, and call for new programmatic initiatives that can slow and help to reverse the widening racial wealth gap in South Bend. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT BLUEPRINT