City Treasurer’s Office Hosts Financial Empowerment Event

City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin has served in the role since 2019. Photo provided by the City Treasurer’s Office.
City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin has served in the role since 2019. Photo provided by the City Treasurer’s Office.

City Treasurer’s Office Hosts Financial Empowerment Event

By Tia Carol Jones

Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin has been focused on financial empowerment since she took office in 2019. She knows the importance of giving people access to the resources necessary to build generational wealth. With that in mind, Conyears-Ervin created the Building Wealth for Tomorrow Financial Empowerment Summit, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12th, at the UIC Forum, 1213 S. Halsted.

This is the fourth annual event, which includes speakers and resources focused on improving a person’s credit, learn about purchasing real estate and becoming a realtor, investing and preparing for the future. It will all be under one roof. This year’s summit will also include a summit for young people. The goal is to get young people interested in building wealth, along with building their personal brand.

Last year, the event featured Ervin “Magic” Johnson as a speaker. This year, Keke Palmer, Larenz Tate and Matthew Knowles will be speaking at the event. Knowles will be talking about entrepreneurship and Tate will talk about family business and wealth creation.

Conyears-Ervin said since the community invested in her, it is important for her as City Treasurer to represent the people. When she thinks about generational wealth, she said she will not be content until people are talking about generational wealth at the dinner table in every community in the city.

“Even if you did not come from wealth, we can still talk about building wealth for our family and generations to come,” Conyears-Ervin said.

Conyears-Ervin wants people to attend the summit, as well as to be informed about the other programs that are available from the City Treasurer’s Office. She believes making wealth building and financial empowerment resources available is important because everything is tied to economics.

Conyears-Ervin wants the summit to be a starting off point for people to talk about wealth building, wealth creation, entrepreneurship and saving for retirement. She said if this happens, it’s a win. She wants people to leave the summit feeling empowered to start somewhere and know it is never too late or never too early to create wealth for themselves.

“This is for everyone. No matter what economic level, income level, it affects them. We can all, no matter what stage we are in life, can start to talk about and build generational wealth,” she said.

In addition to the summit, Conyears-Ervin also created Money Mondays with Melissa during the pandemic to focus on financial health. There also is a Money Matters Institute where banks, credit bureaus and housing experts are being brought to the residents so they can get the answers to their important questions.

Conyears-Ervin said homeownership is the quickest way to build generational wealth. The workshop she is most excited about every year is the one about homeownership. She said her own mother owning a home was the start of generational wealth in her family.

To register for the Building Wealth Today for Tomorrow Financial Empowerment Summit, visit www.chicagocitytreasurer.com/BWTT.

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