Family & Children

The asset team’s Rachel Black and Reid Cramer’s piece, "Can we Afford to Ignore Rising Child Poverty?" which debuted on AOL this week, asks a question that is of utter importance, and especially timely for Californians.

The official arbiters have spoken: The Great Recession ended in the middle of last year. Unfortunately, this decree seems a bit hollow as new evidence of pervasive hardship continues to appear on a daily basis.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Mayor Gavin Newsom and Treasurer José Cisneros today announced the launch of Kindergarten to College (K2C), the nation's first universal children's savings account program. K2C will open and seed college savings accounts for every kindergartner entering public school in San Francisco. The goal is to put all school children on the path to college.

With the immigration debate heating up — and a federal court case over Arizona's SB 1070 brewing — you'd think that the U.S. was besieged by growing numbers of illegal immigrants. But you'd be wrong.

Despite the heightened rhetoric and the bloodcurdling vitriol surrounding the issue, illegal immigration has actually declined significantly over the last few years. While journalists like to characterize the anger over immigration as a response to facts on the ground — i.e. people are inundated and incensed — the numbers don't bear them out.

A colleague of mine just sent me this article about the particular challenges faced by the clergy in retirement. It seems that while we may see preachers and ministers as "wise and frugal," and therefore assume they're responsibly saving away for old age, many are in fact in more trouble than their secular counterparts.

In an office building penthouse with 360 degree views of San Francisco, two groups of young people taught each other, and us, why it is so important to start saving your money young.

You can’t wait until you’re like, fifty, because “that’s hella old.” So spoken by one of the girls participating Friday's training for PLAY, the singular prize-linked youth savings program (description attached). The first of its kind in the nation, PLAY is run by the Mission SF Community Financial Center, the non-profit arm of the Mission SF Federal Credit Union.

This hip tune is making its way around the asset building community in California - we got wind of it from our friends at Tax-Aid - and let's just say that New America is clearly not the only source of new voices and new ideas.

 Although by official estimates the state of the economy is improving, millions of Americans are still without jobs. While current unemployment figures are under 10% and some gains have been seen in a few economic sectors, the picture is not exactly rosy quite yet. If the number of individuals underemployed or working part-time but desiring full-time employment was considered, then the unemployment numbers would rise considerably.

America’s gender and racial wealth gap and why it hurts families

How far would $5 get you these days? A couple of trips on the Metrorail, a mocha latte or two, probably not an entire meal- even at most fast food restaurants. 

What if $5 was your entire net wealth? How prepared would you feel to weather an unforeseen financial emergency (not uncommon in today’s economic climate)?

The welfare reforms of 1996 replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as the primary safety for the poor. But the Great Recession has exposed the failure of TANF as a safety net to catch American families as they experience hardship.