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Asset Building | Productive Aging | Youth Opportunity | Family & Community Development | Civic Engagement & Service
The
Work of CSD
A leader
in theory, policy innovation, and research for greater inclusion asset
building
Asset building refers to matched saving and other progressive strategies
for the poor to accumulate assets for key investments such as education
and home ownership. CSD's work in asset building is multi-faceted. CSD:
- Defined
asset building as an anti-poverty strategy
- Designs
and carries out research on individual development accounts (IDAs)
- Undertakes
research on state assets policy
- Influences
federal and state legislation on IDAs. Fo example, IDAs are
part of federal "welfare reform" and over 40 states now have some
type of IDA policy
- Informs
similiar policy developments in the United Kingdom, Canada, Taiwan,
Australia, Uganda, and other nations
- Organizes
national and international conferences on asset-based research and
policy over several years.
Undertaking
other projects in key areas of social development
Examples include:
- Civic
Service
- Productive
Aging
- Studies
of welfare reform
- Research
on microenterprise
- Study
of life options of teens in foster care
- International
exhange program in Social Policy and Law between Tribhuvan University
in Nepal and Washington University
- Training
in urban community development.
Major
research initiative in productive aging
Productive aging refers to expanded opportunities for older adults to
be engaged in the economy, society, and polity. CSD:
- Held
a national academic meeting on productive aging in St. Louis
- Published
book, Productive Aging: Concepts and Controversies (Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2001)
- Is undertaking
a major research project on Experience Corps.
Global
research and information agenda in civic service
Civic service refers to an organized period of engagement and contribution
to the community, society, or world, such as AmeriCorps, Peace Corps,
and Senior Volunteer Corps.
- Funded
by the Ford Foundation to create the Global Service Institute in 2001
- Created
an international research team, setting agendas, supporting projects,
and building a global web-based information network
- Organized
international research conferences, in Buenos Aires in 2002, St. Louis
in 2003, Accra (Ghana) in 2004, and London in 2005.
Involved
in St. Louis and the State of Missouri
- Designed
and implemented the Urban Family and Community Development (UFCD)
program, which has trained more than 60 community workers from the
St. Louis area, mostly African American
- Assisting
with the evaluation for an IDA program funded by the United Way of
Greater St. Louis
- Helping
with IDA projects at Beaumont High School and East West Gateway Coordinating
Council in St. Louis
- Played
a major role in designing and enacting legislation for Family Development
Accounts in Missouri
- Initiated
a very successful bi-state asset building evaluation known as MOKANSave.
Michael
Sherraden, Director
Center for Social Development
October 2005
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