Rhode Island’s treasurer and governor-elect, Gina M. Raimondo, on Dec. 10 announced a policy change to make college savings more accessible for newborn children in that state. In January, it will be as simple as checking a box.
Asian scholars, practitioners and policymakers share lessons about asset-building policies in Asia and chart the future in the new book “Asset-Building Policies and Innovations in Asia.”
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this academic year, the Center for Social Development is expanding by bringing in new leaders and new bodies of work.
As the racial wealth gap in the United States continues to broaden, the Southern Regional Asset Building Coalition has emerged with solutions for improving and sustaining communities that have historically high poverty rates and few assets.
Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have established the Next Age Institute, an international partnership to study, design and test social innovations.
The Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis recognizes that asset-building policies in Asia offer important lessons in lifelong wealth and retirement security. International interest in these policies, particularly regarding aging populations, has prompted a book published in Chinese and one forthcoming in English.
An experiment that models the first truly universal Child Development Account policy in the United States shows early positive impacts for parents and children, according to a research summary recently published by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.
Social workers from around the world traveled to St. Louis in April to join a conversation about policy challenges, policy practice and professional training of social workers.
More than two decades after Michael Sherraden, PhD, wrote Assets and the Poor – introducing asset building as a new social policy framework – that idea has taken off in numerous directions.
The Great Recession and its aftermath — slow recovery, unemployment, underemployment and economic malaise — have produced an era unseen since the Great Depression. In an effort to study causes and find solutions, Washington University in St. Louis faculty from across disciplines are examining economic insecurity through the university’s Livable Lives Initiative.
The Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis built on an already engaged and productive relationship this month when it co-sponsored a symposium with the Center for Household Financial Stability at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
This week, the state of Maine became the first in the United States to make college savings for newborns universal and automatic, putting into practice research pioneered by Michael Sherraden and the Brown School’s Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.
Michael Sherraden, PhD, George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Social Development at the Brown School, has been named the inaugural S. R. Nathan Professor at the National University of Singapore.
A college savings account in a child’s name not only gives parents hope for the future, it also results in improved social-emotional health for their children.
Low-income youth in developing countries will save their money in a formal account when given the right opportunity.
Brown School alumna Molly Wimonmat Srichamroen has created a first-of-its-kind children’s savings program in her native Thailand, using knowledge she gained at the Center for Social Development. Srichamroen was also a scholar in Washington University’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy.
A special issue of “Economics of Education Review” marks the first comprehensive set of studies that link assets and educational attainment. Research provides evidence that college savings should be included in policies for educational financing.
In the decades ahead, China will have a very large older population, with many older adults who are relatively healthy and interested in being actively engaged in their communities. Contributions of older adults will be necessary for social and economic development of families, communities and society.
The Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis partnered with Peking University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University to host a conference on strategies and innovations for asset building. This conference, held at Peking University in mid-November, reviewed research on asset building initiatives, a growing interest throughout Asia.
Grinstein-Weiss is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the field of asset building whose research focuses on developing programs and policies to promote economic and social development of vulnerable groups.
The Conference on Lifelong Asset Building: Strategies and Innovations in Asia, taking place this weekend in Beijing, will harness the experiences and brainpower of leading scholars, policy makers, practitioners, corporate leaders and funders from around the world.
Asset-building scholars, policymakers, and foundations gathered earlier this month in Washington, DC to celebrate the 21st anniversary of “Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy.”
The three-year project, led by Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and the founding director of CSD, will study curricula for training in financial capability.
The Center for Social Development at Washington University’s Brown School will host a Symposium on International Research and Innovation on April 17, 2012, to examine the process and experiences of building international research partnerships and highlight innovations in economic empowerment and financial inclusion in international settings.
Prior research would suggest that parks are an important element of a livable life. Evidence has connected physical activity, psychological restoration, and social health to proximity to parks and sites of recreation. This research, however, is primarily based on samples of university students and western European populations who are financially comfortable.
Washington University in St. Louis will host the “Work & Livable Lives Conference” from Feb. 27-28 to address current employment-related challenges and how they limit the ability of U.S. households to lead secure and stable lives, raise children successfully, and contribute to the community.
Today, the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis (CSD) and the New America Foundation released the first report of four in the series “Creating a Financial Stake in College.”
In Assets and the Poor, Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, writes that asset accumulation is structured and subsidized for many non-poor households, primarily via retirement accounts and home ownership.
Population aging is a major concern across the globe, and nowhere is the challenge more daunting than in China. Whereas the United States currently has an estimated 36 million seniors age 65 and older, China already has 208 million seniors (defined in that country as age 60 or older).
Available evidence suggests that youth savings has the potential to improve the well-being of low-income and vulnerable youth, but globally, the number of youth savings programs is relatively small.
In August, over 300 gerontology scholars from mainland China, the US, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore as well as governments officials and practitioners from the China National Committee on Aging and the Ministry of Civil Affairs will come together at Peking University to discuss strategies to address population aging.
Worldwide, people aged 60 and above will comprise 13.6 percent of the population by 2020, and 22.1 percent of the population by 2050. China is the most rapidly aging country with older adults making up 13 percent of their population.
Christina D. Romer, PhD, former chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, will deliver a keynote address to open a panel discussion on “The Continuing Unemployment Crisis: Causes, Cures, and Questions for Further Study” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.
What does it take for a family in the US to not merely get by, but to have long-term economic security and ongoing opportunities? This was the question that inspired the creation of the Basic Economic Security Tables Index and accompanying Report.
The first public event of Washington University’s Livable Lives Initiative will highlight policy responses to employment and unemployment. Christina Romer, Former Chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, will be the keynote speaker.
University City Council member L. Michael Glickert presented Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, with a proclamation during a city council meeting Oct. 18.
San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros and Michael Sherraden, director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, spoke at a media and policy briefing at the National Press Club on Sept. 21
CSD congratulates its research partner, Seoul Welfare Foundation, for winning the 2010 United Nations Public Service Award in the category of “Improving the delivery of public services” for its leadership of the Seoul Hope-Plus Savings Accounts project.
The MasterCard Foundation calls the five-year YouthSave project,“a landmark, global research initiative that will test how to sustainably deliver savings services to low-income youth in the developing world.”
TIME Magazine has named Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Child Development Accounts are savings accounts that begin as early as birth. CDAs allow parents and children to accumulate savings for post-secondary education, homeownership or business initiatives.
Michael Sherraden, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis and founder and director of CSD, was recently inducted as a fellow in the new American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.
CSD conducted a webinar on assets and education on February 17th hosted by the Asset Funders Network.
CSD director Michael Sherraden and Margaret Sherraden, CSD research professor, were in high demand when they spent the fall semester of 2009 in Asia.
In August 2009, international gerontology scholars gathered in China to address the challenge of initiating research and policy innovations that will support older adults in being actively engaged and harness their contributions for the betterment of families, communities, and society.
The Livable Lives Initiative started at the Brown School, with the vision of developing a mulit-disciplinary, University-wide project.
Jennifer C. Greenfield, MSW, and Ernest Gonzales, MSW, doctoral students at Washington University’s Brown School, recently offered testimony on the implementation and assessment of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.
The research project will focus on the impacts of one of the Foundation’s major social programs, a matched savings program called the Hope Plus Savings Account Program, which is modeled on Individual Development Accounts in the United States.
On April 6, 2009, Michael Sherraden, Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and Director of the Center for Social Development, presented the wrap-up speech at the 26th Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations.
A visit from members of the Seoul Welfare Foundation in early May will mark the official launch of a research collaboration between the Foundation and the Center for Social Development.