Nicole,
If your offer to help still stands, and you have the time, would you consider joining this team? I'm a little stuck on how to effectively push the idea forward and could use the help. Let me know.

Shuting,
Thanks for your comment. I've been a little stuck with how to proceed (and stretched thin on time-but who isn't?) so I appreciate your feedback.

This is one of the few ideas posted that doesn't assume folks have income to begin with - and I like that. Using "Financial Empowerment" to only mean managing your money better is a narrow view. It may be the narrow view that was intended by the challenge, but there are other ways to think about it as you have demonstrated. I would like to see more ideas like these - answering the question of "what are sustainable ways to put money in people's pocket in the first place".