Ready to Change the World?
Here are some resources to get you started!
Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: From Poverty to Financial Security for All
Overview:
This report explores and provides examples of how key changes to components of the financial, education, justice, health, and tax systems can strengthen—rather than undermine—households’ financial security, and increase economic inclusion.
It describes innovative approaches that integrate a focus on building financial security across programs, while reforming the systems that most affect the balance sheets of lower-income families and families of color. The featured approaches run the gamut from small local programs to state and federal policy reforms and initiatives. These innovations and the changes that they represent to key systems may be adapted and expanded to strengthen the financial security of vulnerable people and communities nationwide.
Building Financially Secure Futures: An Approach for Boys and Men of Color
Overview:
There is a growing field of practitioners and advocates working toward improving outcomes for boys and men of color. These efforts will only be enhanced by understanding the ways in which financial insecurity impacts this population. Demographic change presents an urgency to address the historical inequities that have significantly limited wealth building in communities where boys and men of color live.
​At this moment, embedding asset-building strategies in social supports for boys that have been left behind is critical. Opportunities exist for service providers and policymakers to adopt targeted strategies that can help low-income boys and men of color to become more financially secure.
Research Supports Fair Chance Policies
Overview:
NELP’s conservative estimates indicate that roughly 70 million people in the United States have some sort of a criminal record1 and nearly 700,000 people return to our communities from incarceration every year. Numerous research studies find that people require a combination of family support, community assistance, and economic opportunity to stay out of the criminal justice system. Having access to employment opportunities is a critical component of this web of support. A steady job provides not just financial resources, but also connections to society.