2018 – A Year In Review
We know two important facts about personal savings -- one, it can mean the difference between surviving a financial shock or not, and two, very few Americans have enough emergency savings to last them a month in the event of a crisis. This is particularly true of low-income individuals and families. While we hope to assist our clients with long-term financial planning and goals, the peer learning committee recognizes that helping our community build any kind of emergency savings is an essential first step towards greater financial stability.
For that reason, we focused our efforts in 2018 on how all organizations can work together toward the goal of savings. The CT ABC integrates partners who target different areas of need among low-income residents. Although as organizations we may train our sights on food access, housing, financial literacy, employment, transportation, heat assistance, and other social determinants, our clients experience all of these issues at once. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to join forces with a singular purpose and what better goal than to help individuals through our areas of expertise and in partnership to build an emergency savings fund.
CT Asset Building events and activities in 2018 included:
February 21 Peer Learning discussing “Why Savings?”
October 31 Peer Learning exploring how to better integrate social services with financial empowerment services.
November 8 Greater Waterbury Regional Meeting
Regional Meetings
Greater Waterbury Regional Meeting
November 8, 2018 at Naugatuck Valley Community College sponsored by United Way of Greater Waterbury
ALICE data for CT, ALICE data for Greater Waterbury
- Joel Rivera, Director, RIBA Aspira Career Academy, To learn more follow RIBA Aspira on Facebook or email Joel to receive the quarterly newsletter: [email protected]
- Cathy Awwad, Executive Director– Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board
- Gloria Caesar, Program Director, CAHS - Bank On, VITA Handout 1, Handout 2
- Dave Hinchey, Director of Community Impact, Credit Union League of Connecticut -
Prize Linked Savings Presentation - Donna Taglianetti - EARN Starter Saving Program, Consultant to Connecticut United Ways Presentation
- Stacey Downer, New Haven Financial Empowerment Center
- Laura O’Keefe, Financial Center, The Village
- Annie Harper, Connecticut Mental Health Center
View full agenda here.
Greater Fairfield Regional Meeting
October 18, 2017 at Housatonic Community College sponsored by Fairfield County's Community Foundation, Fund for Women & Girls
- Alese Mulvihill, Director of Family Economic Security Program (FESP) /Grant Manager of SNAP and Forward Program, Housatonic Community College
- Rich DuPont, Advanced Manufacturing Center, Housatonic Community College
- Chris Whalen, Save to Win, Credit Union League of CT
- Lily Lopez, Citi Safe Account, Citi Community Development
- Donna Taglianetti, EARN Starter Saving Program, Consultant to Connecticut United Ways
- Diana Napier, The Workplace
- Janet Siegenthaler, Manager of Business Counseling and Access to Capital, Women’s Business Development Council
View full agenda here.
Greater New Haven Regional Meeting
April 6, 2017 sponsored by the United Way of New Haven
- Erika Lynch, Workforce Development and Continuing Education, Gateway Community College The G.R.E.A.T. Center
- Louise Nestor, Director of Marketing, Connex Credit Union Save to Win
- Frederick W. Kaiser II, Deputy Director, Community Services Administration, City of New Haven; New Haven Financial Empowerment Center Presentation
To view the agenda follow this link.
Creating Better Financial Futures -- Greater Hartford Regional Meeting
October 18, 2016 sponsored by Farmington Bank
Charles Botts, Workforce Development and Innovations Act
Tracey Ariel, Advanced Manufacturing Technical Centers, CT State Colleges and Universities (presented by Michael Kozlowski)
To view the agenda follow this link.
Peer Learning Sessions
State of Financial Coaching in CT
December 7, 2016
- Who's active in providing financial coaching?
- What types of clients are you working with currently?
- What training and resources are you using?
- What outcomes are you tracking?
- What barriers do you face in your program?
- How can we learn from each other to improve our programs?
Video from the June 9 Financial Coaching Peer Learning here.
Policy Academy
Monday February 29, 2016 Materials here.
The Hidden Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans
Tuesday January 12, 2016, with Jonathan Morduch Materials here
Role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Fostering Asset Building and Community Economic Development
Friday September 25, 2015, - with Corey Stone
Behavioral Economics: Practical Strategies for Financial Success
January 29, 2015 Follow-up materials here
Lessons Learned: VITA and Financial Education Best Practices
October 23, 2014
Applying Results Based Accountability to the Work of Achieving Better Results
led by Phyllis Rozansky May 29, 2014
Video from the June 9 Peer Learning Session
Brett Theodos, from the Urban institute, talks about a pioneering randomized trial on financial coaching and its effectiveness. This webinar was part of the Connecticut Asset Building Collaborative peer learning series.
2018 – A Year In Review
We know two important facts about personal savings -- one, it can mean the difference between surviving a financial shock or not, and two, very few Americans have enough emergency savings to last them a month in the event of a crisis. This is particularly true of low-income individuals and families. While we hope to assist our clients with long-term financial planning and goals, the peer learning committee recognizes that helping our community build any kind of emergency savings is an essential first step towards greater financial stability.
For that reason, we focused our efforts in 2018 on how all organizations can work together toward the goal of savings. The CT ABC integrates partners who target different areas of need among low-income residents. Although as organizations we may train our sights on food access, housing, financial literacy, employment, transportation, heat assistance, and other social determinants, our clients experience all of these issues at once. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to join forces with a singular purpose and what better goal than to help individuals through our areas of expertise and in partnership to build an emergency savings fund.
CT Asset Building events and activities in 2018 included:
February 21 Peer Learning discussing “Why Savings?”
October 31 Peer Learning exploring how to better integrate social services with financial empowerment services.
November 8 Greater Waterbury Regional Meeting
Fall Conference 2015
Our Fall Conference was held on November 5th, 2015 at the Solarium, Page Hall at CT Valley Hospital. You can get to the program, presentations and some photos by clicking here. Check back as this will be updated over the next few weeks.
Report on Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFEF)’s conference on ‘The Professionalizing Field of Financial Counseling and Financial Coaching’
The City of New Haven is considering creating a Financial Empowerment Center with a professional financial coach or counselor at the Opportunity Center, 316 Dixwell Avenue. Annie Harper of Yale University, Cynthia Brown-McLaurin of the City of New Haven and Jim Horan of the CT Association for Human Services attended the conference at Bloomberg, LP in New York. Notes from the May 5, 2016 meeting are here.
Asset Building Launch November 7, 2013
Link to the agenda and associated materials
Connecticut Asset Building Collaborative Launch an Outstanding Success!
An essential ingredient in improving economic security for Connecticut families is building assets, including savings, housing, and business ownership. Connecticut Voices for Children, along with the Connecticut Association for Human Services, Strategic Directions and the United Way of Greater New Haven, joined by a Steering Committee of many others, are proud to have been key to a successful launch of an ongoing statewide collaborative working on asset building issues and policies. We’ve posted several handouts and presentations from the event below.
The November 7th event attracted over 120 participants, including public officials, bankers, funders, service providers, advocates and consumers, who spent the morning listening to panels, presentations and speakers before engaging in small group roundtables and discussions. The day led off with remarks from Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier and a welcome from Dr. Esther Howe, Associate Dean of the School of Health and Human Services at Southern Connecticut State University.
This was followed by a panel of consumers who spoke about their experiences trying to build their financial worth. This panel was followed by a keynote speech from Jonathan Mintz, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs and Co-Chair of Cities for Financial Empowerment. After an introduction from our event sponsor, Citi Community Development, Commissioner Mintz spoke about the experiences of New York City and how investing in asset building efforts on the front end saved public sector funds at the same time as building individual capability and self-reliance. The Commissioner also spoke about the ability to get a range of partners, including from the private sector, invested in the work.
The next section, “State of Assets in Connecticut,” was led off by a presentation from Ethan Geiling of CFED with a national perspective on asset building policies and a look at strengths and weaknesses in Connecticut’s asset policies. Orlando Rodriguez of CT Voices then presented an overview of Connecticut data on poverty, racial isolation and youth unemployment, with a call to build incomes and reduce disparities to help build family assets. This was followed by a panel of leaders of state and provider agencies discussing how a Connecticut collaborative might be able to address some of the issues presented.
After a welcome by lunch sponsor Liberty Bank and comments from New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., participants joined regional groups to discuss how they might better work together locally.
For more information, see these selected handouts from the presenters:
- State of the Asset Building Field, Ethan Geiling, Assets & Opportunity Network, CFED
- Financial Inequality in Connecticut: Looking at What the Numbers Really Say, Orlando Rodriguez, Connecticut Voices for Children
- An Introduction to Integrated Service Delivery
- Achieving Financial Stability for Individuals and Families Through Integrated Service Delivery, Highlights from the United Way System
- The Path to Financial Capability, Janitha McCray-Price, United Way of Greater New Haven
- Roundtable on Underserved Populations. Notes from roundtable discussion.
- Product, Services, and Savings for Low-Income Families. Notes from roundtable discussion.