Program Overview

Summer Jobs Connect is an ambitious initiative spearheaded by seed funder the Citi Foundation and the CFE Fund to support young adults seeking summer employment, enhancing these municipally-led programs by integrating structural linkages to safe and appropriate banking products, services, and education. The CFE Fund is working with 25 city governments and their local Summer Youth Employment Program partners to provide additional job positions to local residents of predominantly low incomes between the ages of 14 and 24, as well as connect them to appropriate bank and credit union products and meaningful financial education.

Through the CFE Fund’s leadership, our city partner’s efforts and and the Citi Foundation’s seed support of nearly $40 million, Summer Jobs Connect has provided over 15,000 young people with summer work experience and connected financial empowerment services. Other supportive funders include The Skillman Foundation and the PNC Foundation. Beyond a seasonal paycheck, Summer Jobs Connect positions early job experiences as entry points for lifelong success in the financial mainstream.

Summer Jobs Connect Impact

Summer Jobs Connect as a City Catalyst

For many cities, Summer Jobs Connect was the first time youth workforce programs had included financial empowerment strategies; most cities therefore stretched to develop new partnerships and collaborate across agencies. This further led to broader financial empowerment programmatic integrations beyond SYEP.

Most directly, city partners changed their SYEP infrastructures to ensure the sustainability of financial empowerment strategies, meaningfully changing the way SYEP services are delivered. To encourage direct deposit enrollment, cities made changes to the underlying processes that support the SYEP, including application, enrollment, and payroll. They also used technology to support financial empowerment programmatic elements; for example, cities built banking and savings behavioral prompts into their online SYEP application and certification processes.

Program Locations

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Featured Resources

Summer Jobs Connect: Where Strong Financial Futures Begin

Touchpoints Infographic

Youth Account Priorities

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SJC Youth Voices

SJC participants and partners share the program’s impact

Why is a Banking Account Important?

“Having a bank account allows me to manage my money from my phone. The bank is always there to help. I opened an account so I could save for college. By usingg a bank account, I have learned the power of compound interest!”

– Lizzy, Chicago SJC Participant