All Projects

The SEED OK experiment, which began in 2007, is a large-scale policy test of universal, automatic, and progressive Child Development Accounts. The CDA uses the Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan platform.

We test asset-building accounts for children and youth to create an inclusive system of Child Development Accounts in 12 communities across the U.S. SEED included more than 1,200 low-income children and their families.

We worked with local researchers to implement and test an asset-building intervention with orphaned children at seven primary schools in the Rakai district. 

We examine economic well-being outcomes among low-income individuals who took part in one of seven microenterprise assistance programs in the U.S. 

We analyze civic service and volunteering initiatives in five Southern African countries and examined their implications for social development in the region.

We examine the effects of embedding a yearlong service learning program into existing school curricula for students in a middle school setting. 

Our research investigates the impacts of service on the health and well-being of older adult volunteers and their potential to address critical social development needs.

The policy set up an account for every Singaporean ages 7 to 20. It is one of three asset-building programs that create a cradle-to-grave asset-building system for all.  

The research team is conducting a survey of 350 small business owners (SBOs) in customer-facing (e.g., food services, childcare) industries which have experienced revenue decreases and missed loan payments above the national average

We build social capacity to reduce incarceration rates in ways that are effective, sustainable and socially just. This requires major shifts in the criminal justice system. 

Washington University and Duke University held a think tank about the relationship between social innovation and civic engagement in higher education.

We investigate social innovations in the voluntary sector at the intersection of nonprofits and social enterprises

We provide policy and research design support to the government of South Korea as it develops and implements programs that focus on social investment. 

We built an inclusive statewide and regional asset-building coalition in the South with Historically Black Colleges and Universities as partners.

We collaborate with St. Louis criminal justice entities to research, design, implement, and evaluate evidence-based policies and practices to reduce the incarcerated population.

Our research informs development of asset-building policies at the state level and is designed to include traditionally marginalized groups. 

We explore the nature of service and citizenship in the National Youth Service Corps program in Nigeria and how political forces have affected the program. 

We explore how black youth draw on personal and cultural resources to thrive despite challenges to their identities from institutional racism.

We explore the impact of participation in a service-learning program at the college level on participants’ civic engagement following graduation.

We investigate the potential of youth civic service programs to serve as effective development tools for transitional countries through focusing on Mongolia. 

The Support4Families program is designed to assist families who struggle with the emotional strain of providing support to loved ones releasing from prison.

Our project assisted the Taipei City government with policy and research design for its Taipei Family Development Account pilot program.

We investigate corporate volunteering and its association with various dimensions of corporate philanthropy. 

We work to expand the audience of testimonies from youth and children affected by the cycle of incarceration, violence and disenfranchisement.  

We test a theoretical model that examines poor health behaviors as coping mechanisms for the stress of social disadvantage.  

We use the Social Network Analysis as a tool to measure the community-level impacts of the work accomplished by AmeriCorps volunteers in three U.S. cities. 

We investigate the Technical Aids Corps Scheme in Nigeria to examine participation, its effects on servers’ civic nationalism and its impact on communities. 

We examine whether Nepal’s National Development Volunteer Service enhances civic engagement, especially among the nation’s youth. 

We examine the scope and nature of service learning in urban and suburban schools and across socio-economic levels.

Our project with the United Way of Greater St. Louis implemented an IDA Pilot Program to explore a way to build assets in low-income households and communities. 

We investigate the characteristics and motivations of youth who serve in Germany’s voluntary cultural year. 

We explore organizational factors promoting long-term civic service engagement at Habitat for Humanity International programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

We use our expertise to assess and test innovations that remove barriers to voting and enhance voter participation.

We research asset development in rural America with a focus on underserved populations

We test the role of state welfare asset limits on low-income households’ ability to build assets. 

Missouri’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is important for the nutrition and health of recipients. Yet, only 53% of eligible Missourians have enrolled in WIC in recent years, and program participation rates have declined over the past decade. Operation Food Search (OFS) and Missouri Foundation for Health are examining ways to increase program enrollment and remove barriers to participation for WIC-eligible Missourians.

The Workforce Economic Inclusion and Mobility (WEIM) project is designed to comprehensively examine the financial vulnerability of low-wage workers in the U.S. The research will contribute to identifying public and private sector innovations that improve financial security and economic mobility for low-wage workers in the U.S.

We investigate youth civic service worldwide and measure its impact on volunteers and the individuals and communities they serve.

We assess the status of youth volunteer service in Latin America and the Caribbean and its potential to serve as a strategy for social and economic development.

This initiative in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Nepal was to understand conditions for delivery of savings products and services to improve the lives of low-income youth.