Building Wealth in Lower-Income Communities

On Monday, December 3rd, I presented on a panel at “Working Together to Build Wealth in Lower-Income Communities” held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and sponsored by Massachusetts Community and Banking Council. Wealth and Poverty, Products and Services for people who are low-income, Financial Education Program Models, and Increasing Collaboration were all explored via panel presentations and Q & A.

I presented a new web-based resource, www.FinancialEdToolkit.org, designed to meet the need for quality and consistent financial education in order to increase the financial stability of Massachusetts’ low-income residents. At the Forum, the array of people from different sectors - financial institutions, community-based organizations, and public agencies - was quite amazing!

In attendance were most of the people who are likely to sit on Governor Patrick’s newly forming Asset Development Commission, upon which United Way of Mass Bay & Merrimack Valley will have a seat. The luncheon speaker, Thomas Shapiro, Director of Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy, was very well received. Although he did not directly speak to a recent report that was recently released, By A Thread: The New Experience of America’s Middle Class, his words had a sense of urgency with a growing number of people who are vulnerable to financial instability.

This readable report, co-authored by Thomas Shapiro, includes among others, two startling statistics, “about four out of five middle-class families do not have sufficient assets to cover three-quarters of essential living expenses for even three months should their source of income disappear”, and “More than half of middle-class families have no net financial assets whatsoever – that is, no financial assets or debt levels that exceed their assets.”

I encourage you to check out the report and report back on what you think.