“Constructive Failures” Provide Valuable Insights about Community Economic Development
A new “Mistakes, Learning, and Adaptation” project compiles stories about constructive mistakes that are relevant to the practice of community economic development. Constructive mistakes call into question key design assumptions about problems, strategic interventions, implementation, partners, and even methods of documentation and evaluation. Most importantly, they provide invaluable insights into problems and solutions. In 2007 the Casey Foundation worked with MDC, Inc. to solicit a first round of papers, edit submissions, and hold an authors convening. The initial papers covered topics such as mistakes in social enterprise ventures, failures of capacity and collaboration, and unsuccessful attempts to replicate a model and go to scale. The project continues to solicit articles and has issued a new “Call for Papers” for a second round of submissions.
See an example and initial submissions
Read a new “call for papers”

Report Looks at the Formation and Development of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions
Just after Labor Day 2007, leaders from foundations, businesses, government and nonprofit organizations gathered in Washington, D.C., to announce the launch of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. This ambitious $50 million project was designed to bolster and expand promising workforce development partnerships in communities across the country. Created with major support from foundations, as well as the U.S. Department of Labor, the fund works to help workforce intermediaries and related funding collaboratives. The National Fund was built on years of work by many individuals and institutions, both nationally and locally. That extensive history is the subject of a new report that examines how funders – such as the Casey, Ford, Mott and Rockefeller Foundations, as well as many local foundations, businesses and government entities—played important roles and helped to shape the new initiative. The report will be of interest to those involved in workforce development, including providers, funders and policymakers.
Read the report

Study Examines the Economic Integration of Immigrants in Making Connections Sites
A newly released study, Immigrant Integration in Low-income Urban Neighborhoods, commissioned by the Casey Foundation, focuses on immigrants in the ten Making Connections sites. The authors were asked to take a special look at factors that affect the vulnerability of immigrants such as English language ability, legal status, and country of origin in order to assess the impact of these characteristics on closing the gap on family well-being and economic opportunity. The study’s overall conclusion is that with education, access to a reliable car, English language acquisition and citizenship, immigrants are able to close the gap with native-born whites on most measures of economic integration, even when living in the same low-income urban neighborhoods. Using baseline data from a Making Connections cross-site survey, the study is both timely and relevant to the ongoing debate around immigrant integration and assimilation. It has the potential to highlight policies and programs which can help working poor immigrant families get better jobs, accumulate assets, and prepare their children for success.
Read the report

New KIDS COUNT Data Center Provides Indicators for 50 Largest Cities
Casey's KIDS COUNT online database has a new look and feel, featuring child well-being measures for the 50 largest U.S. cities. This powerful tool contains more than 100 indicators, including the most recent data available on education, employment and income, poverty, health, and youth risk factors for the United States as a whole, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. You can create your own maps, charts and graphs, by topic or geographic area. The system also features the most current state-level data for more than 100 indicators, including: the percent of children with no health insurance coverage, young adults enrolled in or who have completed college, and the percent of children in low-income working families.
Visit the KIDS COUNT Data Center

Georgia and Alabama Complete Reports on Conditions Facing Working Families
The Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) partners with existing state nonprofit organizations to systematically analyze the conditions of working families and state policies related to workforce development. These data-driven and objective assessments identify policy issues that warrant attention if states are to effectively serve working families and offer recommendations for strengthening state policies and program operations. WPFP partners in Georgia and Alabama have recently completed their State Policy Assessment Reports, and they are now available on the Working Poor Families Project website.
Read the new reports

Working Adults Need Supportive State Policies to Help Them Access Postsecondary Education
States that want to increase the education attainment of their workforce should consider public policies that target working adults who need to improve their education and workforce skills. Almost half of today’s workers 18 to 65 years old have no postsecondary education and training, and little opportunity for gaining the education and skills valued by business. A new policy brief from the Working Poor Families Project, Strengthening State Financial Aid Policies for Low-Income Working Adults, describes efforts in several states to increase college access for working adults, and offers recommendations for strengthening state financial aid programs.
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Major Barriers Face Working Adults Trying to Get a College Education
More than half of all Marylanders in their prime working years - between the ages of 25 and 54 – lack a college degree. More education could help many of them move into better paying jobs, but non-traditional students face substantial obstacles to successfully completing a college degree. Meeting program requirements, paying tuition and fees, and finding financial assistance pose challenges to all students, but are particularly difficult for adults going back to school after spending time in the workforce. A new issues brief from the Job Opportunities Task Force, Patching the Leaky Pipeline: Helping Low-Skill Marylanders Access and Succeed in College, examines the obstacles that stand in the way of adult students and provides recommendations to policymakers, educational institutions and local businesses for fixing the pipeline. This study is supported by the Working Poor Families Project.
Read the press release
Read the report

Financial Services in Maryland Are Draining Dollars from Pockets of Working Families
A new financial services report by the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition (MCRC), Limiting the Cost of Being Poor, has important information about how financial services in Maryland are draining money from the pockets of working low- and moderate-income families. The Casey-commissioned report provides recommendations for halting or lessening the impact of these practices. Key recommendations include:

• Limiting fees for check cashing and stored value cards
• Better regulating refund anticipation loans
• Developing financial alternatives to payday loans
• Funding increased enforcement and oversight for debt management services
• Creating a homestead exemption for consumers, regardless of bankruptcy.

Financial Coaching Being Adopted as Complement to Other Asset-Building Strategies
Last fall, the Casey Foundation sponsored a day-long discussion of one-on-one financial coaching as a strategy to help families become more financially successful. A group of national experts and local practitioners from around the country, including Casey's Centers for Working Families® and Making Connections sites, attended and shared what they have learned about financial coaching. Their discussions addressed: how financial coaching differs from other counseling and education efforts, different coaching models and effective practices, how to select a program to meet specific program needs and objectives, and gaps in knowledge and practice that must be met to grow the field. Two reports came from this convening – a brief summary, Financial Coaching as an Asset Building Strategy for Low-Income Families, that addresses the definition and goals of financial coaching, common models and delivery methods, and launching a financial coaching program; and a more in-depth report, Financial Coaching: A New Approach for Asset Building? The longer report includes a literature review and interviews with 46 leading nonprofit practitioners and professionals, who represent 60 percent of the financial coaching programs currently being offered by nonprofit organizations to low-income clients.
Read the summary
Read the in-depth report