AssetPlatform.org is a web-based resource, developed by the Aspen Institute in partnership with the Center for the Study of Social Policy, for nonprofit organizations and agencies which provide financial education and coaching services to low- and moderate income families. For a detailed description and tour of AssetPlatform.org you can click on the link above and download the powerpoint. You can access the site here. Registration is required to use the site.
Center for Working Families at Community Colleges: Clearing the Financial Barriers to Student Success (2012)
This report examines the recent experiences of community colleges across the United States ranging from California to Connecticut, which are implementing the Center for Working Families (CWF) approach to help low-income students attain financial stability and move up the economic ladder.
Conveying the CWF College Strategy
The message box to the left is a useful tool to help convey how the CWF approach can benefit students, institutions, and communities.
More to Most: Scaling Up Effective Community College Practices
How can community colleges go from serving some students in effective programs, to expanding those programs to more students, and finally reach most of those who can benefit from them? MDC's guidebook, More to Most, is a practical response to that question.
Pathways to Success: Service Pathways Analysis for the Center for Working Families Participants (2011)
The service pathways analysis examines a family’s progress along a pathway towards self-sufficiency and financial stability through employment, increasing income, and accumulation of wealth – the three pillars of the Center for Working Families (CWF) concept. This research brief presents findings based on the experiences of participants in three evaluation sites – Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, New Mexico (CNM), the Metropolitan Education and Training Center in Wellston, Missouri (MET Center), and Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland (Bon Secours).
Update: Center for Working Families Cost Profile of Central New Mexico Community College (2011)
Abt Associates provides an updated cost assessment for the CWF site at Central New Mexico Community College - five years after inception. This cost assessment seeks to answer three specific research questions in this report:
- What are the total costs of the CWF service approach? Average costs per participant each year? Lifetime cost per participant (the cost to serve a participant over their entire period of enrollment)?
- How are costs funded – through cash expenditures or in-kind donations of time and resources from other organizations?
- Do costs increase or decrease as a program evolves?
An Integrated Approach to Fostering Family Economic Success: How Three Model Sites Are Implementing the Center for Working Families Approach (2010)
A report by the Family Economic Success Unit of Annie E. Casey Foundation with key insights and lessons learned from three very different organizations that have adopted the CWF approach in response to varying local circumstances.
Pathways to Financial Success: Findings of the Financial Progress Study of Center for Working Families Participants (2010)
This study assesses whether CWF families experience income growth and other financial achievements – both behavioral and monetary – over the course of their participation in the program. Participants at three CWF sites are included in this study:
- Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland;
- Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and
- St. Louis Metropolitan Education and Training, or MET Center, in Missouri.