2023 Financial Empowerment Community Awards
Nominations and Self-Nominations due by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 13, 2023.
The Financial Empowerment Community Council, a board and commission of the City of Saint Paul, has opened nominations and self-nominations for the first ever Financial Empowerment Community Awards, which will be hosted on Tuesday, April 25 at 4:30pm in downtown Saint Paul.
Register for the Financial Empowerment Community Awards
At the center of the Financial Empowerment Community Awards is alignment to the OFE’s mission, result areas and closing the racial wealth gap.
The City of Saint Paul established the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) in 2019 because economic inequality is a whole-city crisis that demands a whole-city response. OFE coordinates that response in partnership with community leaders, businesses and nonprofits, and low-income Saint Paul residents.
Office of Financial Empowerment Mission
To advance an economic democracy that shares prosperity with all Saint Paul residents
Office of Financial Empowerment Result Areas
The Office of Financial Empowerment seeks to achieve:
- Result 1: Saint Paul residents achieve financial health.
- Result 2: Saint Paul neighborhoods achieve community wealth.
- Result 3: Saint Paul residents live in stable, accessible, fair, and equitable housing.
- Result 4: Families with children in Saint Paul have a city that cares about their future.
- Result 5: Saint Paul residents are engaged in public decision making.
Closing the Racial Wealth Gap
At the Office of Financial Empowerment, we measure our city’s prosperity across generations. Decades of harmful choices, from redlining to the destruction of the Rondo neighborhood and West Side Flats, have stripped wealth and opportunity from our Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and refugee communities. Today, OFE is working deliberately to help generations of Saint Paul residents repair those generational injustices and build equitable economic power for decades to come. The strongest nominations and self-nominations will explicitly address how a nominee has contributed to addressing the racial wealth divide and economic disparities.
Eligibility
- Qualified nominees for Award Categories 1-4: Individuals, formal and informal groups, nonprofits, businesses, financial institutions, or collaborative efforts.
- Qualified nominees for Award Category 5: Individuals only. Individual should be in a non-managerial role if affiliated with an organization.
- Implemented a strategy in Saint Paul or impacted Saint Paul residents.
- Strategy took place between January 1, 2020-December 31, 2022.
- Self-nominations or being nominated by others are accepted.
Award Categories
- Category 1: Community Impact -- General: Delivered high impact financial health, community wealth building, or fair housing program, policy, or strategy impacting Saint Paul residents
- Category 2: Community Impact – Youth: Delivered high impact financial health, community wealth building, or fair housing program, policy, or strategy focused specifically on youth between the ages of birth to age 24.
- Category 3: Community Innovation – COVID response: Advanced a cutting-edge financial health, community wealth building, or fair housing program, policy, or strategy in response to the economic impacts of COVID 19.
- Category 4: Community Innovation – Financial inclusion: Advanced a cutting-edge financial inclusion program, policy, or strategy impacting Saint Paul residents. Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.
- Category 5: Community Impact – Advocate (individual award only). A non-managerial role for an individual working directly on the front lines with Saint Paul residents to advance financial health, community wealth building, or fair housing. The award winner will be a staunch advocate and effectively achieved participant-centered goals.
Selection Process
Nominations can be submitted by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 13, 2023. The strongest nominations and self-nominations will explicitly address how a nominee has contributed to addressing the racial wealth divide and economic disparities.
A committee of the Financial Empowerment Community Council will review and select awardees. Awardees will be notified in late March 2023.
The Financial Empowerment Community Awards will take place on Tuesday, April 25, at 4:30 p.m. in downtown Saint Paul.
How to Nominate or Self-Nominate
If you who would like to nominate or self-nominate for one of the Awards Categories, please use the Nomination Form below. You only need to submit your nomination once for a single nominee. You may nominate as many nominees as you would like by 5 p.m. on March 13, 2023.