Interoffice Memorandum
DATE: January 7, 2026
TO: Mayor Jerry L. Demings and County Commissioners
THROUGH: Venerria L. Thomas, Director
FROM: Lavon B. Williams, Esq, AICP, Deputy Director
CONTACT: Lavon B. Williams
PHONE: 407-836-5614
DIVISION: N/A
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Orange County Financial Empowerment Center Update.
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PROJECT: N/A
PURPOSE: On January 9, 2024, the Board authorized $600,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act funding to be dedicated for an Orange County Financial Empowerment Center. This is one of many efforts by this Board to provide financial relief and support to Orange County residents that are experiencing financial hardship, have been slow to recover economically from COVID-19, and to prepare our most economically vulnerable citizens for long term financial stability.
The Financial Empowerment Center is a model developed by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, Inc. (CFE). This organization’s mission is to improve the financial stability of individuals by embedding financial empowerment services in local government. Local governments are uniquely positioned to deliver large-scale, high-quality financial empowerment services. CFE provides both funding and focused technical assistance to mayors and their teams to help them embed systemic financial empowerment programs and policies into local government services to improve individual and family financial stability. The purpose of this presentation is to share the results for the first year of implementation of the Financial Empowerment Center.
This item is for informational purposes only, no action is being requested.
BUDGET: N/A