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CITYSTART INITIATIVE The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund) is a national nonprofit organization that works alongside mayoral administrations to design and implement financial empowerment strategies into local government infrastructure, primarily targeting low-and moderate-income households. The CFE Fund’s CityStart initiative is supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, whose mission is to accelerate the pace of Black wealth accumulation in the U.S., will advise the CFE Fund on the design and execution of the latest iteration of the CityStart program with a specific lens on racial wealth equity.1 In 2022, the CFE Fund began working with the City of South Bend through the CityStart initiative to develop a Financial Empowerment Blueprint specifically focusing on racial wealth equity in South Bend. One of the primary goals of the 2022 CityStart initiative is to address racial wealth equity by prioritizing the financial stability needs of Black residents. The CFE Fund helps local governments embed financial empowerment strategies into municipal infrastructure through four key pillars2: Dozens of other cities have participated in the CityStart initiative to create a citywide Financial Empowerment Blueprint. These Blueprints include: • Columbus, Ohio, which focused on providing financial security for women and families3 • Albuquerque, New Mexico, which focused on creating a BankOn coalition and Summer Jobs Connect program, among others4 • St� Paul, Minnesota, which focused on establishing a municipal Office of Financial Empowerment5 A review of other cities’ Blueprints showcased how each city crafted financial empowerment initiatives based on the needs of their residents. South Bend, therefore, must craft this Blueprint with a localized approach based on the needs of our residents. To discover the unique financial and wealth-building needs of South Bend’s residents, the City of South Bend: Performed detailed research on South Bend’s racial wealth divide, specifically in Kennedy and LaSalle Park, to quantitatively discover the extent of South Bend residents’ financial empowerment and wealth-building needs. Continuously engaged with residents and stakeholders throughout the creation of the Blueprint to qualitatively understand South Bend residents’ financial empowerment and wealth-building needs. FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT BLUEPRINT 5