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For African Americans in particular, the question of financial capability and asset building is as old as Black freedom. Through conceptual frames such as racial capitalism, historical memory, and the family stress model, this article examines the many false starts since Reconstruction in which expectations were raised, but then hopes subsequently dashed when reality produced outcomes that kept tangible economic progress just out of reach of Black families.

The economy''s struggles to overcome the lingering effects of the Great Recession presented unique but essential questions.The book considers a full range of data which considers how this recent experience has impacted households, providing a thorough and contemporary treatment of how the assets perspective has prompted changes within social policy

"The Assets Perspective" presents a multi-dimensional exploration of the rise of asset building as a new social policy framework. By focusing on long-term economic health outcomes rather than short-term income or poverty, this book offers a valuable lens for thinking about social policy - pointing to opportunities for policy interventions designed to assist families in building their asset base. Topics covered include the evolution of public assistance programs, the racial wealth gap, impact of the Great Recession, the challenge of affordable homeownership, the history of financial services, and the potential of policy reform. With contributions from leading scholars, the book considers how the assets perspective has impacted the manner in which social policy is conceived, designed, and delivered

Although some racial inequalities have lessened in the half-century since the passage of the first major civil rights legislation, the racial wealth gap remains and in recent years seems to be widening. Households with children are the least likely to be asset secure or have sufficient resources to enable investment in opportunities for mobility. Viewing inequality from this perspective indicates that what households are able to save and invest for the future might have a more lasting impact on the life chances of children than their current income and consumption. Summarizing data from the Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) Initiative, a quasi-experimental study that is part of a national demonstration of Child Development Accounts (CDAs) in the United States, this paper describes how African-American households engage with one important investment opportunity – college savings accounts for their pre-school children. Combining account monitoring, survey, interview and focus group data, we explore the reasons that many households chose not to open accounts or invest their own money. We offer suggestions for making asset development programs viable for low-income African-American families and their children.

For poor families, the possession of assets—savings accounts, homes, and the like—has the potential not only to relieve some of the stress of living in poverty but also to make a better future seem like a real possibility. If children in families that own certain assets fare better than children in families without them, then helping poor families build those assets would be an effective strategy for two-generation programs.

Indeed, write Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Trina Williams Shanks, and Sondra Beverly, plenty of evidence shows that assets are connected to positive outcomes for poor children. For example, young people who have any college savings at all, even a very small amount, are more likely to go to college; children in households with assets score higher on standardized achievement tests; and children of homeowners experience fewer behavioral problems. But this evidence comes from longitudinal data sets and is therefore correlational.

Looking for causal relationships, the authors examine the results of experimental programs that opened various types of savings accounts for poor people and matched their contributions. Several of these trials included a control group that did not receive a savings account, making it possible to attribute any positive outcomes directly to the savings accounts rather than to their owners' personal characteristics. These programs dispelled the myth that poor people can't save; participants were generally able to accumulate savings. It's too early to tell, however, whether assets and asset-building programs have long-term effects on children's wellbeing, though one experiment found positive impacts on disadvantaged children's social-emotional development at age four. The most promising programs share several features: they are opened early in life; they are opened automatically, with no action required from the recipients; and they come with an initial deposit.

Objectives: Using baseline survey data, the study examined self-efficacy of 381 lower-income parents who had opportunities to build financial assets for their children by opening college savings accounts in a human service agency. Methods: Of the study sample, 62% of the parents decided to open accounts while 38% did not. Structural equation modeling for multiple group models was performed. Results: There were few demographic differences between the groups. The measurement model was invariant across parents who decided or did not decide to open accounts, fitting the data for both account openers and nonopeners, χ2(450, n = 381) = 804.60, p < .001, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .070(.063—.073), Non-Normed Fit Index [NNFI] = 0.93, Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.93). Conclusions: Results lend some support to institutional perspective on saving. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Actively engaging community members in the revitalization of their neighborhoods is a goal of numerous planning initiatives. In this article, we provide a case example of how the solution-focused brief therapy's "miracle question" was used to engage members of a major metropolitan community in visualizing their dreams and planning strategies for change. Similar to outcomes with therapy clients, community members participated actively and were enthusiastic in communicating their outcomes. Dreams were realistic and important to participants, and suggested strategies were oriented toward first steps and recognized as involving effort by the community. Engagement and retention were sufficient to move forward with immediate actions and longer-term preparation. Benefits and suggested modifications are offered for community practitioners and researchers employing this method.