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Asset Building Initiatives (Click here for Civic Service Initiatives )

Click here for all Asset Building Initiative Project Descriptions or see list below.

American Dream Policy Demonstration (ADD)

Assets Across the Life Course

• Asset Across the Life Course

Assets and Native Communities

• Asset Building in Indian Country: Tribal Outreach

Children's Savings

• I Can Save
• Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED)
• SEED Account Monitoring
• SEED for Oklahoma Kids (formerly Universal Model)
• SEED State Policy

Global Assets Project

• AssetsAfrica
• China
• Hong Kong
• Hungary & Slovakia
• Indonesia
• Kenya: Asset Building & Investment
• Peru & Colombia
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan

Inclusive College Savings Plans (529s)

• Connecting State College Saving Plans (529s) with Resource Flows: Innovations with EITC Recipients
• Inclusion in College Savings Plans
• Increasing Access to Higher Education: Inclusion in 529 Savings Plans

State Policy

• Asset Building Research and Policy at Local, State, National Levels
• MOKAN Save
• Wealth Building in Rural America Project

Welfare Reform

• Poor Finances: Assets and Low-Income Households
• Welfare Reform, Asset-limit Policy, and Asset Accumulation

Civic Service Initiatives (Click here for Asset Building Initiatives)

Click here for all Civic Service Initiative project descriptions or see list below.

Elder Service

• Assets Across the Life Course
• Experience Corps
• Institutional Capacity for Elder Service
• Productive Engagement of Older Adults: Effects on Well-being  

Fellows Program

Global Assessment of Civic Service

Global Service Institute

Youth Service

• The Scope and Nature of Service Learning: A Comparative Study of Urban and Suburban Schools
• Transnational Service
• Youth and International Service
• Youth Service in Latin America and the Carribbean

Asset Building Initiatives

American Dream Policy Demonstration (ADD)

American Dream Policy Demonstration (ADD)
The Downpayments on the American Dream Policy Demonstration (ADD) was the first large test of the efficacy of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) as a route to economic independence for low-income Americans. Thirteen community-based organizations from around the country operated IDA programs as part of the Demonstration. By the Demonstration's completion, these organizations established 2,364 IDAs in their low-income and asset-poor communities. This Demonstration also catalyzed and connected a rapidly expanding field of community-based IDA programs around the country.

Assets Across the Life Course

Assets Across the Life Course
This project will examine the patterns and determinants of asset accumulation across the life course. Building upon our earlier work and methodology detailing the life course patterns of poverty and the use of welfare, we will merge 35 years of data (1968 - 2003) from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Life table analysis as well as multivariate modeling techniques will be employed. Several key components of asset holding will be examined, including homeownership, financial wealth and net worth, and asset poverty.

Assets and Native Communities

Asset Building in Indian Country: Tribal Outreach
The Center for Social Development (CSD) and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies have undertaken projects focused on American Indian and Native Alaskan populations. These projects have grown out of an overall concern about populations that may not be benefiting from IDA programs. Because American Indian tribes are also governments, unique policy solutions are needed to offer native populations inclusiveness in state and federal IDA programs. Project One: State IDA Policy Development and Tribes as Part of CSD's State IDA Policy Project has reviewed the inclusiveness of federal and state IDA policies relating to Native families and American Indian tribes/Native Alaskan villages. CSD published American Indian Tribal Communities and IDA Policy in April 2003. Project Two: The Native Asset Building Paper has generated a broader native discussion on asset building and has identified practical asset-building approaches. This project includes an Advisory Council made up of American Indian/Native Alaskan leaders, leading to a “Native Asset-Building Discussion” curriculum that is currently being developed.

In related work Karen Edwards serves as co-chair of the National Native Financial Education Coalition (NFEC), developing a research agenda on asset building established by American Indian communities. (more)

Children's Savings

I Can Save
I Can Save is a demonstration of financial education and matched college savings for low-income elementary school students. The project, a unique school-community-university collaboration, tests the potential of financial education and college savings to increase understanding of personal finance and to improve academic engagement and expectations for college. Research on I Can Save aims to understand and document the effects of financial education and asset accumulation on students’ financial literacy, academic engagement, educational efficacy, and plans for college. The research will inform development of a universal model of school-based college savings and financial education.

Global Assets Project (GAP)

China: Inclusive Asset-Based Policy
The Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis has introduced the idea of asset-based policy in China. Asset-building policies are now being studied and developed by the central government. In October, 2006, the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) set "universal increase of household wealth" as one of the tasks for building a 'harmonious socialist society" by 2020.

Hungary and Slovakia: Matched Savings Initiatives
Two asset-based matched savings initiatives are underway in Southern Hungary and eastern Slovakia. These three-year asset-building pilot programs will focus on the rural poor with the goal of encouraging low-income families to save for assets that will pave the way to a better life.

Principal Investigator	Michael Sherraden
Contact	Becky Wachera Gitonga
Project Update

Taiwan: Demonstrations and Policy Progress
Asset building is emerging across Taiwan as a central socioeconomic policy theme. Momentum has built since the success of the Taipei City government's three-year "Taipei Family Development Account" (TFDA) pilot program in 2000. The TFDA demonstrated that low-income families in Taipei can accumulate assets for the future and that institutionalized incentives play an important role in long-term saving and investment plans of the poor. Experience with Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) in the United States has informed implementation of the pilot TFDA program.

Inclusive College Savings Plans (529s)

Connecting State College Saving Plans (529s) with Resource Flows: Innovations with EITC Recipients
The objective of this project was to increase participation of low-income Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients in their state’s 529 matched savings plan. This project drew on the base of Casey-funded community tax coalitions providing outreach to low income individuals to claim the federal EITC. Research indicates that although many low-income families use refunds to finance routine expenses, refunds are also used in ways that promote longer-term economic well-being. Coalitions are linking refunds to IDAs, and this project aimed to link the EITC tax sites in at least two states with each state’s matching college savings program.

Inclusion in College Savings Plans
College savings plans or "529s" are designed so individuals can make after-tax deposits for future higher education expenses (tuition, fees, books, supplies, and equipment) at colleges, universities, vocational schools, or other post-secondary educational institutions. Typically administered by state Treasury Departments, 49 states and the District of Columbia now have 529 savings plans in operation. Access and inclusion are fundamental issues in 529s. Wealthy participants, who receive greater tax benefits, often have more to gain from 529s. The poor participate at very low levels. How can 529s serve the whole population? The Ford Foundation has funded a program of research on inclusion in 529 saving plans. The purpose of this project was to study, discern, design, and help develop the potential of taking children and youth asset building to scale through 529 savings plans. This project is associated with CSD’s interest in moving toward a universal children savings account policy in the United States.

Increasing Access to Higher Education: Inclusion in 529 Savings Plans
This project studied Matching Grant Program participation in Maine’s 529 college savings plan, the NextGen College Investing Plan®. To be eligible for a matching grant, Maine-resident families must have had an adjusted gross income of about $50,000 or less. The study consisted of a telephone survey of 137 randomly-selected NextGen Matching Grant Program participants. An additional 10 respondents were interviewed in person or via telephone for longer, in-depth inquiry. Research reports present descriptive statistics, analysis of characteristics associated with savings in 529s, and qualitative findings from in-depth interviews.

State Policy

Asset Building Research and Policy Development at Local, State, National Levels
The Center for Social Development provides research, information, and creates proposals in policy work. CSD staff has worked with federal, state, and local political leaders to develop asset-based policy. Michael Sherraden assisted in developing the Individual Development Account (IDA) policy that was included in the 1994 welfare reform proposal of the Clinton White House. IDAs are included as a state option for using federal funds in the 1996 "welfare reform" act. A majority of states have made IDAs part of their welfare reform plans or have legislated IDAs. CSD helped to design the federal Assets for Independence Act (AFIA) of 1998, and Universal Savings Accounts.

MOKAN Save
MOKANSave is a bi-state coalition with the mission to promote asset-building policies and programs across Missouri and Kansas, in communities urban and rural, large and small. Launched in February 2002, MOKANSave was conceptualized, and inspired by the Center for Social Development. From its inception, MOKANSave has operated under the auspices of the Community Economic Development Committee of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare (MASW) through a grant funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Center for Social Development continues to direct and support activities of the coalition. MOKANSave is in partnership with Heart of America Family Services of Kansas City, Missouri, and El Centro, Incorporated located in Kansas City, Kansas, both of which have been instrumental in the success of MOKANSave. Since its inception, MOKANSave has sponsored, organized, and hosted five community forums (all in various parts of rural and urban Kansas and Missouri) and one bi-state conference educating interested groups about IDAs and ideas associated with asset-building and wealth creation. MOKANSave has a membership that consists of non-profit organizations, community based organizations, financial institutions, legislators, policy advocates, private foundations, and other stakeholders. Interested organizations, groups, and individuals are invited to join the bi-state MOKANSave coalition and to help promote asset-building policies and programs across Missouri and Kansas. If you would like to receive a monthly email update from MOKANSave and be included in future forums, conferences, and other MOKANSave activities, please complete the MOKANSave Interest Form or contact. Njeri Kagotho, Co-Director, MOKANSave at 314.935.6158 or by email listed below.

Wealth Building in Rural America Project
The Wealth Building in Rural America project was informed by a vision of wealth building as a bedrock theme in the history and development of the United States. Although ownership of property was a vision upon which the nation was founded, rural America has experienced a "hollowing out" of assets since the country changed from predominantly agricultural production to industrialization. Moreover, major declines in population in rural America have led to struggles in rural communities for economic, social, and civic stability and growth. The Wealth Building in Rural America project advanced the state of knowledge, policy, practice, and research, while attending to the particular concerns of people of color and diverse populations who live in rural areas.

Welfare Reform

Poor Finances: Assets and Low-Income Households
This project aims at providing a roadmap for future research on financial asset building among low-income households by reviewing existing theoretical and empirical studies and available datas. CSD is performing with the Urban Institute on this project.

Welfare Reform, Asset-limit Policy, and Asset Accumulation
This project examines the relationship between asset-means tests in AFDC/TANF and asset accumulation among low-income households in the context of welfare reform. This project tests whether increased asset limits in state welfare eligibility rules have facilitated current and potential welfare recipients’ financial asset accumulation. This project uses individual level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and state-level policy variables collected by CSD.

Civic Service Initiatives

Elder Service

Experience Corps
Experience Corps (EC)is an inter-generational tutoring program that places older adults into public schools to help students who have been identifies as poor readers. The program currently operates in 18 cities across the country. The evaluation, called "Evaluating the Impacts of Experience Corps," will investigate (1) outcomes to the students receiving the tutoring and (2) outcomes to the older adults (members) who provide the tutoring. The Student Outcomes study will operate in two cities, Boston and New York. The Member study will operate in all 18 EC cities, and will target new members to the program for the fall of 2006. Both studies will take places during the 2006-2007 school year.

Institutional Capacity for Elder Service
This project aims to increase knowledge to guide the expansion of institutional capacity to engage older adults in service to society. At present, the team is piloting a tool to measure five dimensions of institutional capacity: expectation, access, information, incentive, and facilitation. Twenty-two organizations that solicit older adults to provide service in St. Louis metropolitan area participated in a telephone survey. Through interviews with the volunteer director or staff person most responsible for volunteer management, the team found that the dimensions and their related sub-constructs had face-validity to the volunteer directors. Additionally, focus groups with older volunteers were conducted to understand more about access, information, incentives, and facilitation.

Productive Engagement of Older Adults: Effects on Well-being
This study focuses on the impact of working, volunteering, and care giving on the health and mental health of older adults. The study used an existing data set from the Americans' Changing Lives Study (ACLS), that contained information about employment, care giving, and volunteering as well as health, mental health, and life satisfaction. Data was collected in 1986, 1989, and 1994 and a new wave of data collection is pending. Findings showed that older adults have high levels of engagement in the productive activities of working, volunteering, and care giving and, in general, engagement in productive roles of work and volunteering is beneficial to older adults. Although some beneficial psychological aspects of care giving are documented, the very important role of care giving to dependent elders is often related to negative health and mental health outcomes for the older caregiver. Further research is needed to find the optimal balance of productive and leisure time that maximizes the well-being of older adults.

Fellows Program

Civic Service Research Grants and Fellows Program
As part of its commitment to capacity building and civic service knowledge development worldwide, CSD created the Civic Service Research Grants and Fellows Program in May 2002. The Fellows Program supports innovative social science research as well as the development of an international, interdisciplinary network of scholars and researchers in the area of civic service. Two rounds of fellowship awards have been made since the program's founding. In 2003, CSD funded eight projects that implemented research in 11 countries, including Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, Mongolia, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and the USA. In 2005, CSD funded 12 projects and doubled the number of countries in which research was implemented. Fellows conducted research in 22 countries, including Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gambia, Greate Britain, Mexico, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, the USA, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Global Assessment of Civic Service

Global Assessment of Civic Service
This project examined the patterns and determinants of asset accumulation across the life course. Building upon our earlier work and methodology detailing the life course patterns of poverty and the use of welfare, we will merge 35 years of data (1968 - 2003) from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Life table analysis as well as multivariate modeling techniques will be employed. Several key components of asset holding will be examined, including homeownership, financial wealth and net worth, and asset poverty.

Global Service Institute

Global Service Institute
The Global Service Institute is an initiative of the Center for Social Development and Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) to help lead the civic service research, program, and policy agenda. GSI aims to be a global community, comprised of human and data networks, that will increase knowledge, inform policy, and advance innovation in civic service worldwide. CSD defines civic service as "a period of engagement and contribution to the local, national, or world community, recognized and valued by society, with minimal monetary compensation to the participant." CSD is creating the foundations for civic service as a field of inquiry; planning and convening conferences; increasing capacity for civic service scholarship and application; conducting innovative research; and facilitating an informational resource network worldwide. See GSI website for more information.