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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExhibit ACITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA INTER -OFFICE MEMORANDUM TO: Emilio T. Gonzalez, Ph.D. DATE: City Manager SUBJECT: FROM: William Porro REFERENCES: Assistant Director, a 2ent of Human Services ENCLOSURES: Monday, December 17, 2018 FILE: API Allocation of $120,000 to establish a Children's Savings Account for all Kindergartners entering Schools. BACKGROUND The City of Miami ("City") created the Anti -Poverty Initiative (API) to address poverty and focus on providing support to its residents. The transformative role of post -secondary education remains an important opportunity to increase lifetime earnings and achieve upward social mobility in America, especially for those born into low-income families. The establishment and funding of the Children's Savings Accounts (CSAs) will provide the fundamental support to help change the trajectory of students' lives and provide another option to make post -secondary education a reality. In order to address the City's anti -poverty efforts and provide support to our residents, we are supporting the transformative role of higher education in a child's life by providing the allocation and funding to establish children's savings accounts for each new kindergartner entering school. This new initiative is built in partnership with the Miami Foundation, United Way, the MDCPS School Board, Catalyst Miami, Sant La, and the Children's Movement. The City of Miami is to provide the seed funding to the Future Bound Consortium to establish a savings account for each new kindergartner to assist them to attend post -secondary education and provide an avenue via savings for family and friends to contribute as well. The greater the level of family savings, the higher the likelihood of college attainment. Even modest savings can impact college attainment, with research indicating that children with less than $500 saved in their name are three times more likely to attend and four times more likely to graduate college than those without any savings. RECOMMENDATION In light of the above stated, approval of a waiver of the formal requirements of competitive sealed bidding methods as not being practicable or advantageous to the City as set forth in the City Code of Ordinances, as amended, specifically Section 18- 5 (A), and the affirmation of these written findings and the forwarding of the same to the City Commission for rati atio6 by a four-fifths vote is respectfully requested. Emilio T. Gonzalez, Ph. 0., City Manager cc. Milton Vickers, Director, Department of Human Services