Financial Capability & Human Services Education

A key aim of the Financial Capability and Asset Building (FCAB) initiative is to address the wide gap in professional training of practitioners who serve low- and moderate-income households. In this way, we hope to increase financial capability among households that today receive little or no financial guidance or counseling. 

Curriculum Development. An initial goal and accomplishment  was to develop and test a  curriculum to equip social workers to work with financially vulnerable families and communities. Social work programs in 19 minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, were the initial group to test the curriculum. It is now being adapted in other countries, such as Singapore and China. This curriculum development led to the first FCAB textbook for social work, Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households: Theory and Practice.  For additional online curriculum materials that augment the textbook and serve as resources for training social workers and other human services professionals, see FCAB educational resources.

Research. In collaboration with the Council on Social Work Education, surveyed  social work faculty in the United States measuring household financial and economic content currently being taught in social work courses, and assessing faculty perceptions about the usefulness of financial and economic content to social work students. Outcomes of the study inform FCAB research, practice, and education in social work. The study was funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), and featured in its Spring 2018 NEFE Digest.

Funding Partners: Wells Fargo Advisors, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, National Endowment for Financial Education

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Principal Investigators

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Project Directors