Children & Youth Savings Conference Underway

Made it to Brooklyn today, with the family in tow, feeling like country bumpkins as we left behind the dirt road in Vermont for a few days in the big city. The girls can’t stop singing “NYC” from Annie. My older daughter is a fan of The Apprentice. She looked out the hotel window, saw a limo go by on Adams Street, and screamed “There’s Donald Trump.”

The conference kicked off with a nice reception tonight. Some of the welcoming remarks came from Jonathan Mintz, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. His words really resonated for me. He noted how the unfortunate tragedy that has been unfolding with our country’s economic crisis has made this a time of tremendous opportunity for people working in asset building and financial empowerment. New ideas and initiatives at all levels of government and civil society are taking root and gaining traction thanks in part to the urgency that people feel about our broken economy. It felt almost as if he knew all about SaveTogether and could have been referring to our project specifically.

I’ve already had the chance to talk up SaveTogether to a number of interesting people at the conference. They all seem really excited about what we’re doing. And I was able to meet a few CFED people face-to-face whom I had talked with on the phone and by email these past months but had never actually met in person. I can tell it’s going to be a busy and exciting few days.