Mission SF’s aim is to promote financial security and catalyze economic mobility for children, youth, and families by:

• Raising awareness about and increasing access to affordable, quality financial services as alternatives to high-cost fringe outlets like payday lenders or check cashing services
• Delivering innovative financial education and counseling combined with saving and credit-building financial products and services
• Improving community financial services, resources and opportunities through new product innovation and advocacy
  

 

Our vision for California’s families is simple: that all families have access to quality financial services and products to achieve not just economic self-sufficiency but economic mobility. Basic banking services, saving incentives, microloans to (re)build credit and one-on-one financial counseling are the first rungs on the economic opportunity ladder. They are essential points of entry, leading to the most fundamental—small business loans, college loans and mortgages. Many of California’s low-income families and families of color live in places where the financial services landscape is dominated by payday lenders, check cashers, rent-to-own stores and pawn shops.

This financial services landscape must change if we want to see California’s families move from living paycheck-to-paycheck toward living their dreams of owning a small business, sending their children to college and owning a home. During these challenging economic times, families need access to quality financial services more than ever. At Mission SF our vision is that all families have access to these first rungs of the economic opportunity ladder. We have witnessed what families can do when they are within reach—they achieve the economic mobility that we want for all Californians.

Adult Financial Counseling & Credit Building Programs

Mission SF offers one-on-one financial counseling for adults. Topics include basic banking, budgeting, credit repair and credit building, saving tips, debt management, financial planning, and ending relationships with predatory lenders. To learn more about our financial counseling and credit building programs please click here.

MAKE A COUNSELING APPOINTMENT TODAY!

Contact John Luna by email or Jessica Leal by phone at (415) 206-0846 to make a FREE counseling appointment or to schedule a Mission SF presentation of our services for your community.

Youth Savings & Education Programs

Mission SF believes that when children and youth start saving at early age, they grow up to become financially secure and economically mobile adults. We believe that saving transforms young people's view of themselves and their aspirations. In service of this vision, Mission SF offers several innovative and nationally recognized programs for children and young adults designed to establish healthy, lifelong personal finance skills and saving habits. To learn more about our specific youth programs please click here.

Mission SF currently offers the following programs:

 

• PLAY - Child Savings Program                                             • Make Your Path (MY Path)- Youth Savings Program

• Youth Financial Educators Program                                    • Youth Credit Union Program (YCUP)

 

ENROLL NOW!

 

Contact Jessica Leal by email or by phone at (415) 206-0846 to enroll a child or a young adult in one of our savings and education programs today!

Mission SF designs and tests new financial products, including San Francisco’s first alternative payday loan product in 2008 and prize-linked child and youth accounts in 2009. Through New Economic Right for All (New ERA), Mission SF most recent community initiative, we are supporting a community-driven effort to improve access to quality financial services for low-income youth and families.

New Economic Rights for All (New ERA)

Launched in Fall 2010 with support from the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, New ERA is a youth organizing project designed to expand access to quality financial services in San Francisco for low-income youth and their families. Access to quality financial services brings both financial security and economic mobility within reach for youth and families.

 

New ERA is a group of community activists dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers and risks of using payday lenders and to promote practical alternatives. The New ERA wants everyone to have the same economic rights regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, financial status, or geographic location. The New ERA is working toward greater regulation of predatory lending industries so that working class and low-income people can avoid unreasonable debt. To learn more about the New ERA, please click here.

 

September 2011

- Center for Financial Services Innovation Convenes Innovators for the First Bay Area Financial Capability Development Lab in Collaboration with Charles Schwab Bank and Charles Schwab Foundation.

April 2011

- Mission SF’s innovative MY Path youth savings model is featured in the recently released Spring 2011 Edition of Community Investments. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Community Investments aims to highlight innovative programs and ideas that have the potential to improve communities.

- Watch a recent ABC News Segment and hear PLAY savers and their parents talk about the program’s impact on their lives.

March 2011

- Mission SF’s proposal to expand and evaluate MY Path was one of 13 finalists from a pool of 246 applicants in the Center for Financial Services Innovation's highly competitive national Innovation Fund contest.

Media Archive

For the additional news and updates on Mission SF's programs and services, please click here.