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CSD Project List
This CSD Civic Service Research Fellows study develops an easy-to-use instrument that allows service and volunteer organizations to assess the impact of their programs. The instrument is developed with the aid of service and volunteer organizations within and outside the United Kingdom to ensure that the instrument is useful in different cultural, political, and social contexts. The Downpayments on the American Dream Policy Demonstration (ADD) was the first large-scale demonstration of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), with approximately 2,400 accounts opened at 13 sites across the country. CSD led the research design and dissemination for this demonstration, designing a multi-pronged approach that included both quantitative and qualitative research methods. An experimental design was executed at the ADD site with the largest number of program participants. This research, which is ongoing, has yielded a considerable number of papers, reports, journal articles, and books, informing policymakers and others on topics related to creating effective opportunities for low- to moderate-income populations to save and invest in such assets as homes, businesses, higher education and retirement.
Funding provided by Ford Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Citigroup Foundation, F.B. Heron Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, Levi Strauss Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, the Moriah Fund, and the MetLife Foundation. Participants in AmeriCorps*VISTA Entrepreneur Corps are placed in organizations that aim to increase asset ownership among low-income groups. CSD collaborated with the Corporation for National and Community Service to assess the role of Entrepreneur Corps members in asset-building programs throughout the United States. We report findings regarding the asset-building activities of these members, and recommend performance measurement indicators based on effective asset-building. This CSD Civic Service Research Fellows study tests a definition of intercultural competence and develops an instrument to measure and assess it. This project investigates the impact of international youth service programs on Swiss and British volunteers and on their Ecuadorian hosts using surveys and focus groups. Findings contribute important knowledge to the field of intercultural education regarding the identification, development, assessment, and impact on those involved. CSD is a leader in research and theory on asset-building strategies for low-income individuals and families. This project examines the patterns and determinants of asset accumulation across the life course, merging 35 years of data (1968-2003) from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Life table analysis as well as multivariate modeling techniques are employed. Several key components of asset holding are examined, including homeownership, financial wealth and net worth, and asset poverty. This project provides the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) with assistance in designing the next evaluation of the Assets for Independence (AFI) program. Building on ACF’s recent evaluation of the AFI program and the state of the IDA field, CSD is reviewing research findings and data sources from IDA programs, and developing an evaluation plan which will outline evaluation options and their relative advantages.
Funding provided by Urban Institute, Administration for Children and Families, and US Department of Health & Human Services. AssetsAfrica is a pilot program that tests asset-building innovations for impoverished households and communities in Uganda. Participants purchased motorcycles, bicycles, goats, oxen, and land with the money they saved in their AssetsAfrica savings accounts. The longitudinal quasi-experiment research includes surveys, in-depth interviews, and savings account monitoring. CSD is partnered with the Brookings Institution (BI) on the Initiative on International Volunteering and Service to build knowledge on international service worldwide. BI aims to create avenues for meaningful participation in international volunteering and service, and to ensure long-lasting value for volunteers, as well as for sending and hosting organizations, communities, and countries. As a partner in this initiative, CSD is conducting research that builds knowledge on international service worldwide and will contribute to related policy analysis. CSD is currently conducting an impact assessment of volunteers in Cross-Cultural Solutions' international service program. CSD is collaborating with faculty and staff at the G. W. Carver Agricultural Experiment Station at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama to develop state and regional asset-building coalitions in the southern Black Belt region. Goals of the project are to build capacity for an inclusive statewide and regional asset-building coalition in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi using Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as partners. Central to the vision of the project is raising awareness that will strengthen asset-building strategies in the Black Belt region. The project disseminates information about asset-development initiatives such as financial literacy and education programs, access to banking, Individual Development Account programs, land loss and ownership, pre- and post-hurricane recovery strategies, new strategies to deliver asset-building programs, policy, and research initiatives, and new approaches to develop unique partnerships and collaborations.
View information on coalition development meetings. CSD assisted the Xin Jiang provincial government with policy design and research design of China's first asset-building program, implemented in 2005. CSD will conduct ongoing research on the program in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The Xin Jiang program may serve as a model for asset-building programs to be implemented in other parts of China. This study assesses African-American freshman and sophomore students’ decisions to remain in high school and their opinions regarding specific dropout prevention programs. Outcomes indicate that students believed that school completion would prepare them for the future, and were more likely to stay in school if family members supported that decision. Primary barriers to completing school relate to family issues, academic problems, and personal issues. Overall, students were most interested in intervention programs that focus on the future. CSD's work on civic engagement and service focuses on societal inclusion and ways to promote engagement across the life course. Our research includes investigations of youth service, international service, and service across the life course. The project investigates voluntarism and civic service in Lesotho, including its goals and objectives, institutional contexts, programmatic forms, and connections to organizations in the United States. Findings show that informal and formal civic service traditions in Lesotho are primarily a response to social necessity, not an idealistic venture. Formal civic service has been largely facilitated by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), although Lesotho NGOs have also facilitated on a limited basis. CSD created the Civic Service Research Fellows Program to support innovative research on civic service in countries all over the world. The program has provided funding and training to a multi-national network of scholars and researchers, representing over 17 countries. Their research and scholarship contributes to a growing knowledge base on civic service worldwide, including research on service-learning, national, and international service. In some countries, such as Mongolia, this is the first known published research on civic service. The work of the Research Fellows is featured in the 2007 book, Civic Service Worldwide. View Research Fellows publications. 1
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