Stepping Stones

Early childhood education finds advocates in unusual places.

Posted on by Vera Steiner Blore

Access to quality early childhood education is finding articulate advocates in unusual places, including voices from the Federal Reserve Bank. The economic argument for investing in quality early childhood education has been soundly made by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis researcher Art Rolnick in the working paper, A Proposal for Achieving High Returns on Early Childhood Development.

In addition, on September 24, 2007, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, talked about the importance of investing in early childhood education in his remarks on education and economic competitiveness in a speech to business leaders at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He noted that, “ the payoff from high-quality pre-school and home visitation programs is likely very high, especially for children born into poor or otherwise disadvantaged families.”

On March 5, 2008, Jeffrey M. Lacker, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, spoke to Fairfax Futures’ business and foundation partners about the importance of investing in early childhood education.  Lacker noted, “Human capital is critically important to economic growth at the state or metropolitan level. Therefore, the more skilled the workforce, the more rapidly the economy grows.” Lacker went on to say, “The close relationship between skills and growth, combined with compelling evidence that early childhood education leads to better educated, more highly-skilled adults, is what makes the case for early childhood education so strong for me.”

Washington Area Women’s Foundation President Phyllis Caldwell participated in the event.  The Women’s Foundation is a strong supporter of Fairfax Futures’ efforts to engage the business community as advocates on this issue.

Vera Steiner Blore is executive director of Fairfax Futures, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Stimulating talk: ESP and savings

Posted on by Donna Ortega

No not Extra-Sensory Perception, I’m talking about the Economic Stimulus Payments.

Beginning in May, the IRS will send Economic Stimulus Payment checks to over 130 million households.  Intended to spur a slowing economy, these payments represent many millions of dollars flowing into our communities. Just imagine what you could do with that money! How about doing something really novel and taking that payment and saving all or part of it for a rainy day?

It’s not like saving is unheard of, or that people don’t also get the message to save. It’s more that when surrounded by many more messages to “buy this new thing,” or “upgrade to this latest thing,” it’s harder to hear the call to save. And those messages to spend and buy are mostly winning.  Recent survey results released by America Saves and the American Savings Educational Council (ASEC) found that only 53 percent of Americans have adequate savings, with just 28 percent saving the recommended 10 percent of their annual income.

It’s not just a message of cutting out the frills and luxuries, either.  Surveys of taxpayers who file at the DC Earned Income Tax Credit (DC EITC) Campaign’s free tax sites have shown that many of them use their refunds for everyday expenses, including paying bills.  If your income isn’t very high to start with, it’s easy to see why saving can be more difficult.  At CAAB, however, we see every day that anyone can save.

National research and our own experience with our matched savings program participants like Christine Walker has shown that even people with low incomes can put money away now as a down payment on a brighter future.

To help get this message out and to provide motivation, information, and resources to help people take positive financial action, DC Saves was started a year ago this month (Financial Literacy Month, a fitting birthday!) to help Washingtonians reduce debt and increase savings. 

This Saturday, April 5, we’ll host our First Anniversary Financial Literacy Fair at THEARC in Ward 8. In addition to useful information and access to savings products and resources, we’ll also provide free tax preparation services, financial education seminars, credit reports and counseling, and mini-sessions with Certified Financial Planners. It’s free to the public and we hope you’ll join us to learn how you, too, can take that first (or second, or third, etc.) step toward reaching your financial goal.

And what about that ESP?

To help more people claim and keep the economic stimulus payment and any other tax benefits they may be owed, the DC EITC Campaign and Community Tax Aid are hosting Super Stimulus Filing Days alongside our regular tax clinics. Community organizations can help their clients access these services by spreading the word about the programs, or sending their own staff to learn how to complete the necessary tax forms to help their clients receive their economic stimulus payments at one of our training sessions.

And if any of those clients want help to make a commitment to saving, tell them about the Fair on April 5. It’s a free, fun way to share the message that “Anyone can save!”

Donna Ortega is director of development and communications at Capital Area Asset Builders, a Stepping Stones Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.  The Women’s Foundation is a sponsor of the April 5 Financial Literacy Fair. 

Christine: How Stepping Stones changed my financial future.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Christine Walker came to Washington, D.C. in 2002 from Milwaukee for better professional growth opportunities. Eager to advance her career, she enrolled in public policy courses at George Washington University.

As she accumulated credits toward her degree, unfortunately, she also began accumulating credit card debt.

A lot of it.

Concerned about her financial future, Christine embarked on a journey towards financial literacy. She taught herself everything she could through books. Then she teamed up with Lydia’s House, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation, and took classes on how to improve her credit and prepare for responsible home ownership.

Lydia’s House set her on a path towards better financial practices, but as a single mom responsible for her four-year old son, Christine still wasn’t earning enough through her job as an executive assistant to save—the true pathway to economic security.

And that’s where The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones initiative came in.

Stepping Stones brought together Lydia’s House and Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB), providing a grant to CAAB to provide Individual Development Accounts —or IDAs, a special type of savings account—to single mothers in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8 earning less than $35,000 who completed financial literacy courses at Lydia’s House.

Fueled by the motivation of knowing that she could quadruple her savings, Christine saved $1,000 in six short months. Having completed the required financial education training and met her savings goal, Christine earned a 3-to-1 match on her account from the IDA program–receiving an additional $3,000 from funds provided by The Women’s Foundation and the D.C. government.

The match, she says, made all the difference.

"The match made it seem like it was worthwhile," Christine says. "When you can only save $25 a month, you feel defeated, that you can’t put a dent in your goals. Your only hope is for a better job, or some other fluke. It’s frustrating. With the IDA account, it seemed almost too good to be true. For me, $4,000 is huge. It means not having to use a credit card for school."

Emily Appel, matched savings program director at CAAB, explains that motivation is a significant part of the journey towards saving. “Christine is awesomely motivated, which is what it takes to balance the cost of raising a family in the District and saving for school," Emily says. "We’ve seen time and again that with that motivation to fix one’s finances and start a business, go back to school, or buy a house, even very low-income people can find a way to save and purchase their asset.”

Christine now has $4,000 saved to apply towards her public policy degree. Eventually, she hopes to go to law school. Once she has her undergraduate—and eventually her law school—degrees, her earning potential will significantly increase.

This is the idea behind the IDA accounts, which require that the individual’s savings be put towards an asset that will increase in value over time, such as education, homeownership or small business start-up or expansion.

Programs like these are what make The Women’s Foundation—and its Grantee Partners—so effective. Because we invest in strategies and people, like Christine, that generate an amazing return on investment.

Christine is the first of what will be up to 20 success stories to emerge from the partnership between Lydia’s House and CAAB over the next three years—for a combined savings of up to $80,000, leveraging thousands more in mortgages, scholarships, and student and small business loans.

Stay tuned for even more great results and impact from Stepping Stones—The Women’s Foundation’s long-term initiative focused on helping low-income, single mothers achieve economic security. Evaluation results for the first two and a half years of Stepping Stones will be available in April.

If you are a Grantee Partner and would like to recommend clients for enrollment in the CAAB IDA program, please contact Emily Appel by email or at 202.419.1440 for more information.

2008 Stepping Stones Research Briefing: Calling all presenters!

Posted on by Peter Tatian

We are seeking presenters for the 2008 Stepping Stones Research Briefing to be held the morning of Friday, May 16, 2008 at The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

Washington Area Women’s Foundation and The Urban Institute will co-sponsor the 3rd annual Stepping Stones Research Briefing, highlighting research on issues relevant to low-income, women-headed families. We are looking for researchers who would like to present their research and findings at this year’s research briefing.

Stepping Stones is Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s multi-year initiative focused on increasing economic security and financial independence for low-income, women-headed families in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The Stepping Stones Research Briefing provides an opportunity for The Women’s Foundation and its partners to learn about the latest research that can inform their work supporting this population.

The first two research briefings each drew audiences of over 100 people, including representatives from community-based organizations, funders, government agencies, and research institutions.  Information on the 2007 briefing is available here.

Individuals interested in participating in this year’s research briefing should submit an abstract of their research and findings (no more than 1,000 words) to Peter Tatian at The Urban Institute (ptatian@ui.urban.org), by 5:00 pm, Friday, March 7, 2008.

Abstracts should make clear how the research is relevant to issues facing low-income, women-headed families and those who are working to assist these women.

Submissions will be accepted in the following topic areas: financial education and wealth creation; workforce development and business ownership; child care and early education; and, health and safety.

Final selection of presenters will be made by March 21, 2008.

Copies of all presentations, as well as audio recordings of the entire event, will be posted on The Urban Institute and The Women’s Foundation’s Web sites. Presentations from last year’s research briefing can be found here.

Questions about the research briefing should be addressed to Peter Tatian (ptatian@ui.urban.org) at The Urban Institute or Carolee Summers-Sparks at The Women’s Foundation.

Please share this announcement with anyone who may be interested.

For more information on the background of the Stepping Stones Research Briefing, click here.

Peter Tatian is a senior research associate in the Urban Institute’s Center on Metropolitan Housing and Communities.  Peter plays a crucial role in the development and success of the Stepping Stones Research Briefing.

Stepping Stones Research Update: January 2008

Posted on by Kerstin Gentsch

As part of our ongoing commitment–in partnership with The Urban Institute–to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

This research is summarized and compiled for The Women’s Foundation by Kerstin Gentsch of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

The Effects of Welfare and IDA Program Rules on the Asset Holdings of Low-Income Families
By Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe, Yunju Nam
Urban Institute
September 2007

Examines the effects of a comprehensive set of 13 welfare, Food Stamp, individual development account (IDA), earned income tax credit (EITC), and minimum wage program rules on the asset holdings of low-education single mothers and families.  This report finds empirical evidence that more lenient asset limits in means-tested programs and more generous IDA program rules may have positive effects on asset holdings of low-education single mothers and families.

Main Findings:

  • More generous unrestricted asset limits are not associated with increased liquid asset holdings for either low-education single mothers or families.
  • More generous restricted account asset limits are associated with increased liquid asset holdings for low-education single mothers and families.
  • More generous Food Stamp vehicle asset limits are associated with increased vehicle asset holdings for low-education single mothers.
  • Expanded categorical eligibility in the Food Stamp Program is associated with increased vehicle asset holdings for low-education single mothers and families.
  • More generous IDA program rules are associated with increased liquid asset holdings and net worth.
  • A more generous state EITC amount is negatively associated with liquid asset holdings but the percentage of the state EITC that is refundable is positively associated with liquid asset holdings.
  • A more generous state minimum wage for federally covered categories (i.e., covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act) is associated with increased liquid asset holdings, vehicle asset holdings, and net worth.

Abstract and introduction.
Full paper. 

Assessing Asset Data on Low-Income Households: Current Availability and Options for Improvement
By Caroline Ratcliffe, Henry Chen, Trina R. Williams-Shanks, Yunju Nam, Mark Schreiner, Min Zhan, Michael Sherraden
Urban Institute
September 2007

Identifies the most reliable and informative data sources for understanding low-income households’ assets and liabilities, details their limitations, and provides options for improving asset data sources and collection methods.
The four evaluation criteria—relevancy, representativeness, recurrence, and richness of correlates—serve as a framework for assessing how effectively various data sets can provide an understanding of low-income households’ assets and liabilities.  Of the data sets reviewed, only one receives the highest ranking under all four criteria—the PSID. With these high rankings, the PSID has the potential to provide reliable information on low-income households’ assets and liabilities and is identified as a “primary” data set.

Because our primary research question asks that we identify the most informative and reliable data sources for understanding low-income households’ assets and liabilities, any data set designated a “primary data set” should comprehensively measure assets and liabilities (relevance criterion) and be representative of the overall U.S. low-income population (representativeness criterion).

The only other data sets that receive top ratings in these two criteria are the SIPP and SCF. They perform well enough in the other two criteria to also be deemed “primary” data sets.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full report. 

Jobs and Business Ownership News

Low-Income Workers and Their Employers: Characteristics and Challenges
By Gregory Acs and Austin Nichols
Urban Institute
May 2007

Defines and documents the characteristics of low-wage workers and their employers.  This paper finds that about one in four workers, ages 18 to 61, earned less than $7.73 an hour in 2003. Low-wage workers who reside in low-income families with children are substantially less educated than the average worker, are concentrated in industries with low wages, and have limited prospects for wage growth. Many policies aimed at low-wage workers are not well-targeted at workers in low-income families with children, in part because only one in four low-wage workers reside in such families. Nevertheless, policies targeted at low-wage workers may have broad benefits, including improving the lot of low-income families with children.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Place Matters: Employers, Low-Income Workers, and Regional Economic Development
By Nancy M. Pindus, Brett Theodos, G. Thomas Kingsley
Urban Institute
May 2007

Summarizes factors determining locational decisions of businesses and workers, as well as local economic growth, and suggests how employer needs as well as opportunities for low-income workers might be served by successful policies in the areas of housing, transportation, education and workforce development.

In looking at economic development, employer choices, and opportunities for low wage workers through the lens of place, it is clear that the landscape is shifting and policies must adapt accordingly. Spatial mismatch is more than employers and businesses leaving the urban core and poor urban residents lacking transportation to new job centers. Now, some urban centers are revitalizing, the creative class is growing in cities, and some suburbs (especially older suburbs and some outer-ring suburbs) are increasingly diverse and beginning to experience some of the same challenges as cities. And, there is a growing body of evidence that, in a knowledge-based economy, equity and tolerance are good for business. There is a growing consensus that geography of opportunity has changed, and continues to change.

Opportunities for new initiatives:

  • Housing policies that promote “workforce housing” and the deconcentration of poverty by considering the mix of the workforce and matching housing opportunities to that mix.
  • Transportation and other infrastructure funding that supports integration of systems and reduces sprawl by concentrating development near rail and bus hubs (“smart growth”).
  • Aligning workforce and education with economic development by addressing spatial mismatches between training opportunities and where people live and work; improving coordination between employers, workforce development intermediaries, and community colleges; and facilitating cross-firm career mobility within regional labor markets.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Building Skills and Promoting Job Advancement: The Promise of Employer-Focused Strategies
By Karin Martinson
Urban Institute
May 2007

Discusses what we know about employer-focused training, describes three employer-focused training models, and concludes with some key questions to address to assist in moving forward with this type of skill development strategy.  Three types of promising employer-focused job training:

  • Incumbent worker training provided directly at the workplace through employers is a large-scale effort to involve employers in skill building.
  • Sectoral training programs focus on providing training to a cluster of employers in one segment of the labor market.
  • Career ladders: A subset of sectoral initiatives focuses on developing career pathways that lead to higher-paying jobs.

Main challenges:

  • Many sectoral and career ladder initiatives require the involvement of multiple systems, including workforce development, community colleges, the business community, unions, and community groups. It can be difficult to gain the cooperation of all parties needed to enact the type of major changes required by many initiatives.
  • Many employer-focused training programs require substantial resources to plan and implement effective initiatives.
  • While strides forward have been made, it is a continuing challenge to develop training options that effectively reach low-income workers.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Meeting Responsibilities at Work and Home: Public and Private Supports
By Pamela Winston
Urban Institute
May 2007

Summarizes what we know about families’ access to supports, employers’ experiences, and public and employer efforts to expand them.

Paid parental/family leave:
Time for parents and infants to bond is vital to children’s positive development, and long hours in out-of-home care in early infancy pose risks for children’s development, especially in the low-quality settings to which low-income families often have access. The United States is one of only 5 of 173 nations surveyed for a global index that does not have public policies to provide paid time off for parents to care for and bond with a new infant. Further, while some employers and states provide paid parental leave, low-wage workers are least likely to have access to it.

Paid sick leave/paid time off:
Paid time off that can be used for workers’ short-term illnesses or those of their children, routine medical care, involvement in children’s school meetings or activities, or for other family or personal needs can play an important role in fostering family well-being. Almost half (48 percent) of American private-sector workers are estimated to lack any paid sick leave, amounting to over 54 million employees.

Workplace flexibility:
Flexibility for employees to change start or end times, take time out during work hours for emergencies, request shift changes or exemption from mandatory overtime, or otherwise adjust work hours for family obligations can also help parents fulfill their responsibilities to their employers and their families. 57 percent of workers indicated in 2002 they did not have access to traditional flextime.

Child care:
Access to affordable, consistent, and adequate-quality child care available during work hours can make an important difference to parents’ productivity and reliability on the job, and to children’s well-being. As a rule, the child care market does not provide a sufficient supply of affordable adequate-quality care, which can create particular challenges for low-income families. Public programs can provide financial and other support to many low-income families with low-wage workers, but typically many eligible people do not participate in them.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Maternity Leave in the United States: Paid Parental Leave is still not Standard, even among the Best U.S. Employers
By Vicky Lovell, Elizabeth O’Neill, Skylar Olsen
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
August 2007

Analyzes parental leave policies of Working Mother100 Best Companies.

  • Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of the best employers for working mothers provide four or fewer weeks of paid maternity leave, and half (52 percent) provide six weeks or less.
  • Nearly half of the best companies fail to provide any paid leave for paternity or adoption.
  • While more than one-quarter of companies (28 percent) provide nine or more weeks of paid maternity leave, many of the winners’ paid parental leave policies fall far short of families’ needs.
  • No company provides more than six weeks of paid paternity leave and only 7 of the 100 best companies provide seven weeks or more of paid adoptive leave.

Press release.
Fact sheet. 

Implementation and Sustainability: Emerging Lessons from the Early High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGJTI) Grants
By John Trutko, Carolyn T. O’Brien, Pamela A. Holcomb, and Demetra Smith Nightingale
Urban Institute
April 2007

Summarizes lessons from the early grantees of a major national effort to encourage the development of market-driven strategies addressing business and industry’s workforce challenges.

The discussions revealed insight into four general, interrelated, implementation issues:

1. Establishing and maintaining partnerships

  • Bringing the right partnerships together is critical to success.
  • Successful collaboration requires regular discussions and agreement regarding respective roles and responsibilities of each organization and the specifics of how staff will collaborate and share information.
  • The existence of the HGJTI grants helped partnering organizations to better understand the resources and capabilities of other organizations.
  • Employer partnerships are especially important to ensure that the workforce challenges are accurately defined and the strategies selected meet the current and immediate needs of the sector.
  • Projects operating across large areas, such as in rural locations, face special issues regarding partnerships.

2. Project start-up, development, and design

  • Effective and timely implementation of projects aimed at addressing critical workforce needs depends greatly on recruiting and retaining staff with the necessary occupation-specific skills.
  • Effective training programs should have a strong front-end assessment and recruitment and outreach procedures in place.

3. Targeting and reaching trainees

  • Grantees found that when serving disadvantaged populations and dislocated workers it is important to incorporate supportive services.
  • Recruiting and retaining participants is a major activity for training programs, and a particular challenge when targeting on widely varying populations.
  • At the time grantees were contacted, most had reached or were close to reaching their capacity-building and training goals.

4. Management and meeting federal grant requirements

  • It is important to begin to focus on post-grant sustainability well before grant funds are exhausted.
  • DOL/ETA staff provided various types of technical assistance and guidance to HGJTI grantees, but many needed more federal grants management support.
  • Grantees found that they needed a longer grant performance period.

Abstract and introduction.
Full paper. 

Child Care and Early Education News

Vouchers for Housing and Child Care: Common Challenges and Emerging Strategies
By Margery Austin Turner, Gina Adams, Monica Rohacek, Lauren Eyster
Urban Institute
August 2007

Highlights promising strategies for tackling challenges to housing and child care vouchers’ success.  Vouchers play an important role in federal efforts to help low-income families obtain both housing and child care. These programs constitute essential components of the promise of welfare reform to encourage and support work among low-income families. And both types of vouchers have the potential to enhance long-term outcomes for children.

Although federal housing and child care voucher programs differ in important respects, they also face common challenges. First, the success of both programs in helping families access high-quality services depends upon the supply of these services in the private market and the willingness of providers to accept voucher families. If acceptable rental housing units or child care slots are not available where families need them, vouchers are not effective. In addition, low-income families may face challenges in negotiating the private market, gathering information about available child care or housing options, or identifying providers that meet their needs and offer good quality. Finally, both housing and child care voucher programs have to balance requirements to avoid any overpayment of subsidies (either by serving ineligible families or by miscalculating the appropriate subsidy amount) with a mandate to support work and enhance well-being among low-income families.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Pre-Kindergarten to 3rd Grade (PK-3) School-based Resources and Third Grade Outcome
By Brett V. Brown and Kimber Bogard
ChildTrends
August 2007

Examines multiple PK-3 school based resources that tap into children’s experiences of early elementary grade learn to PK-3 school-based resources by key social groups of children defined by poverty status, parental education, and race/ethnicity.

While the majority of children had access to most positive PK-3 school influences, marked inequalities in access were still found. Unequal access to these school resources were observed by parental education and income level, as well as race and Hispanic origin. The most educationally at risk children (i.e., parents have less than a high school education, family income below the poverty level, Black non-Hispanic children) were the least likely groups of children to access high resource elementary schools. This finding clearly indicates that the quality of elementary schools must be considered when examining questions concerning achievement gaps by income and race/ethnicity.

Our preliminary multi-variate analyses point to some core school variables that predict academic and behavior skills necessary for future success and well-being. Of particular interest are the differential relationships between two clearly defined sets of PK- 3 school-based resources reported in kindergarten, and their relationships to academic and behavior outcomes in third grade. Reading and math scores were consistently predicted by strong principal leadership, high academic standards, and teachers collaboratively developing curricular materials. Teacher turnover, which can be considered indicative of instability within a school, was related to lower rates of self-control and school engagement among third grade children. These findings suggest that there may be PK-3 school-based resources that independently predict academic and behavioral outcomes. Though these results are preliminary, we believe they are the strongest research evidence yet that such factors each have influence over levels of school readiness in young children.

Full paper. 

Health and Safety News

Access to Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance among Low-Income Families: Who Has Access and Who Doesn’t?
By Lisa Clemans-Cope, Genevieve M. Kenney, Matthew Pantell, Cynthia Perry
Urban Institute
September 11, 2007

Examines access to employer-sponsored health insurance among low-income families.

  • In 2003 and 2004, about one in two children in low-income families did not have access to ESI, despite having one or more employed adults in the family.
  • Among low-income working families, families with lower levels of income, families with lower parental education, families where parents work in smaller establishments, and families in which no parent has union representation are all less likely to have access to ESI.
  • Public insurance fills a substantial part of the gap in health insurance coverage left by lack of ESI access for children in low-income working families, but parents without an offer of ESI remain uninsured at high rates. In fact, among families without an ESI offer, children are twice as likely—and parents nearly three times as likely—to be uninsured than families with an offer.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and the Low-Income Workforce: Limitations of the System and Strategies for Increasing Coverage
By Linda J. Blumberg
Urban Institute
May 2007

Outlines the problems with employer-sponsored insurance from the perspective of employers, specifically those employing low-income workers, and discusses potential strategies for addressing them.  Problems with employer-sponsored insurance from the perspective of employers:

  • When employers competing for the same pool of workers tend to offer health insurance, then the pressure to offer such benefits increases for the other employers in that labor market. Likewise, in markets where ESI is not common, the pressure to offer it is significantly lessened.
  • One of the more controversial and complex issues related to the employer decision to offer insurance is whether the incidence of employer premium contributions falls upon the employer or upon the worker. While the best empirical evidence available indicates that, at least in large part, employer payments are passed back to workers via reduced wages, most employers do not believe this is the case.
  • Firms employing significant numbers of modest-wage workers will not be able to offer health insurance to their workers. This is because low-income workers will tend to prefer employment that provides additional wages as opposed to health insurance benefits to a significantly greater extent than will high-income workers.
  • Another aspect of the price of health insurance to employers is labor turnover. The administrative costs associated with health plan enrollment and disenrollment are higher for employers with high-turnover workforces.

Policy options to address shortcomings of the system:

  • Providing government subsidies for insurance coverage.
  • Requiring all residents to obtain a minimum level of insurance: individual mandates.
  • Requiring employers to participate in the financing of health insurance coverage for their workers: employer mandates.
  • Approaches for controlling health care costs.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

Other News and Research

The Feminization of Poverty
by Megan Thibos, Danielle Lavin-Loucks, and Marcus Martin
The J. McDonals Williams Institute
May 2007

Examines the evidence for the feminization of poverty and analyzes the factors that contribute to the phenomenon; provides a portrait of feminized poverty at national and local levels; examines the role of public policy in alleviating women’s poverty and proposes policies that could significantly reduce the magnitude of the feminization of poverty.

Two schools of thought on the reasons for the feminization of poverty:

The feminization of poverty exists because of significant changes in the family structure such that households headed by females are not only a larger proportion of households but also are disproportionately impacted by factors contributing to poverty compared with other types of households.

Structural changes in the economy have caused the displacement of many women into occupational sectors that are gender-specific, low-wage, and low-benefit employment opportunities—such as pinkcollar jobs. Moreover, the shift into a knowledge-based economy has meant that those females with the least educational attainment and the least work skills will be least likely to experience work opportunities that can effectively and permanently move them and their families out of poverty.

Our focus is on three broad public policy areas that can have a positive impact on moving female-headed households out of poverty and into the self-sufficiency:

1) Expanding educational opportunities
2) Livable wages
3) Equitable wages and occupational segregation

Full report.

Thanks and see you next month with more research from the Stepping Stones issue areas!

What are women business owners contributing to our economy?

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Inspired by Roxana’s post on women entrepreneurs and the study Trinity University conducted for The Women’s Foundation about how to support them, I couldn’t help but click when I came across an article in the Jacksonville Times-Union called "Women mean business: $18 billion worth."

The article cited a study that showed how women-owned businesses in northeast Florida had made an $18.8 billion impact on the local economy and created more than 200,000 jobs.

The study was done similarly to the way that Trinity had done theirs in our area, and revealed some of the same findings.  Including how women just feel that they can do better on their own, rather than working for someone else.

The article states, "For some reason, [women] think they can do better on their own than somewhere else," said Gwen Martin, managing director of research at the Center for Women’s Business Research. "From these numbers, I’d say they’re right."

It all got me thinking more about the local statistics about women-owned businesses, and the power of investing in women entrepreneurs–and in programs that build their skills and help them step out on their own.

Programs like those found in the directory of women’s small business development that Roxana created with her students.

It got me to thinking about the status of women-owned businesses in our area.  From the Center for Women’s Business Research I learned that as of 2006:

  • In D.C.: There are an estimated 21,706 privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms, generating $5.4 billion in sales and employing 20,667 people.  Between 1997 and 2006, the number of these firms in the District of Columbia increased by 52.3 percent and sales increased by 48.7 percent.
  • In Virginia: There are an estimated 243,756 privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms, generating more than $42 billion in sales and employing 320,198 people. These firms account for 40.2 percent of all privately-held firms in the state.
  • In Maryland:  There are an estimated 210,751 privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms, generating more than $32 billion in sales and employing 223,760 people. These firms account for 41.2 percent of all privately-held firms in the state.

Not too shabby, particularly when you consider the challenges that women face in developing a small business, and particularly low-income women like those featured in the Trinity study.  The challenges cited include access to start-up funding, credit issues, lack of business knowledge and training, time constraints, family commitments, health insurance and a fear of failure.

Given that, it would make sense then that one of the study’s most important questions would be why a woman, and particularly a single, low-income woman without another breadwinner in the home, would even attempt it. 

The study found the following answer, "…As minority low-income single mothers, they are more likely to have experienced difficulties and disadvantages in the labor market. Inadequate income, lack of opportunities to build wealth and assets, insecure jobs, little opportunity for advancement, poor working conditions, and conflicts with supervisors appeared to encourage these women to consider self-employment as a more desirable option than their existing wage employment…"

Trends that sound similar to those expressed in a recent DC Women’s Agenda post on the challenges facing women wage earners in Washington, D.C.

Then there are the Portrait Project‘s findings that throughout our region, women earn less than their male counterparts with the same level of education, due largely to the fact that women are crowded into fields that offer lower wages and fewer benefits.  Nationally, for instance, 23 percent of women are in administrative support roles (compared to 5.4 percent of men) and 17 percent of women are in service jobs (compared to 11 percent of men).  When women do hold professional or managerial jobs, they earn from $12,000 to $16,000 less than their male counterparts.

So it may be that women are feeling that they can do better on their own because, by and large, they can–particularly for low-income women looking at jobs that don’t provide stability, security, insurance or paid leave.

The risk of starting a business may seem small in light of the potential reward of succeeding.

And given the statistics about women-owned businesses in our area, it certainly seems as though investing in their success has a similar risk/reward ratio and is highly likely to pay off. 
 
As the Times-Union article stated, "We can reduce that stress so they can get on with the rest of their lives, whatever their dreams might be."

Learn more about how our Stepping Stones initiative is helping women in our area fulfill their dreams–from owning their own business to advancing in a secure career.  And how you can get involved!

Trinity develops resource for D.C.'s entrepreneurial women!

Posted on by Roxana Moayedi

As a recent Stepping Stones Grantee Partner (I’m an associate professor at Trinity University in Washington, D.C.), I partnered with students in three of my courses over two semesters to develop, conduct, and analyze two community-based research projects to benefit D.C.-area women.

Trinity University takes seriously its role as a member of our community and one of the ways we work to fulfill our social justice mission is by partnering with other community-based organizations to identify and address our area’s needs.

Our community work takes a number of different forms both on and off campus. Not only do we encourage our students to volunteer, we require students to engage in course-based service projects that benefit our community while reinforcing and extending what they learn in class.

And, unusual for an undergraduate institution, we also provide opportunities for undergraduates to perform hands-on research—something which is usually limited to graduate students at larger universities.  These opportunities not only introduce them to sophisticated and rigorous concepts and methods, but allows them to use their own community as a laboratory and a lens, adding depth, dimension, and a grounding in reality to their college educations.

Our students learn “in the ivory tower” as well as “in the neighborhood.”

Our two community-based research projects had different, yet complimentary, focuses. In one course, my students and I conducted three focus groups bringing together low-income single mothers in the D.C. area to gauge their potential interest in starting their own small businesses.

Our key finding was that these women believed that they would never be able to get ahead as someone else’s employee.  They saw small business ownership as the only way they would ever be able to get ahead financially while balancing the competing (and often conflicting) needs of work and family. We compiled our research findings and analysis into a comprehensive report.

Our research explored both the opportunities and advantages women envisioned when considering self-employment, as well as the obstacles they perceived to be keeping them from making the leap from wage employment to micro entrepreneurship. One of the biggest obstacles our research participants identified was a lack of information about resources out there to help them plan—then actually launch—their businesses (primary need, start-up funding).

This finding neatly segued into our second, parallel research project: an online directory of D.C.-area micro enterprise assistance organizations, a project that we researched and compiled over two semesters.

My students and I developed a research instrument to find out specific information about each organization we studied. We compiled a list of local organizations to survey, and students tenaciously contacted these organizations, surveying them then analyzing survey results to judge whether they met our criteria for inclusion. The Association for Enterprise Opportunity’s member directory served as the foundation for this asset-mapping project.

We were able to build on the information they provided and we eventually identified 25 organizations in the Washington metropolitan area that provided micro loans, business training and technical assistance, and/or other relevant information and assistance that women in our community can use to make their entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

Roxana Moayedi is associate professor of sociology at Trinity University, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Voice and Vision Forums inspire discussion, direction.

Posted on by Sherell

As The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones Phase 2: Voice and Vision forums come to an end, many wonderful, enlightening thoughts on the future of Stepping Stones and women and girls in our region have been shared.

One thing I’ve observed about the forums as I’ve compiled the evaluation forms from many people–from different regions and communities–is that people from all over echo the same concerns and insights on issues related to what keeps women from succeeding economically and financially.

When you hear the concerns and worries at different points in time from different people, it helps to legitimize things and ensure you that they are, in fact, issues to address.

What are some of the discussion topics that continue to generate rich, interactive conversations?

Attendees always engage in a rich dialogue around the area of the targeted income range. The insights as to why we should consider lowering the floor from $15,000, or heighten the current bar from $35,000, are varied and you get to hear excellent different points of view of people from different walks of life. 

Our current geographic target population (Washington, D.C., Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, Maryland, and Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax Counties in Virginia) is another hot topic.

Thirdly, the role of advocacy in the Initiative remains a question widely debated. Should we increase advocacy efforts? What strategies could we engage in to do so?

So, why should you consider attending the last forum on December 1? Because if you don’t already know what Stepping Stones is and why it came about, this is a great chance to learn more!

Stepping Stones is so great because it takes a comprehensive look in the long-term at the economic and financial well being of women. You also get an opportunity to share your voice on some of the hotly debated issues such as the ones listed above.

The grants given from the Stepping Stones fund nonprofits directly impacting the community.  They are not grants to provide a handout; they are hand-ups.  These funds and the technical assistance that come along are literal stepping stones that assist women in reaching their full potential.

These forums are a relaxed environment.  It’s only two hours, and after you learn about Phase 1 of Stepping Stones you get a chance to share your input with staff and other community leaders on what Phase 2 might look like.

I’m glad that this series of regional forums was launched.  It exemplifies how much The Women’s Foundation values input from our own community.

We want to hear from you, because we are all agents of change.  We’ve had Grantee Partners, leaders of nonprofit organizations in our communities, governmental officials, and friends from the general public attend and learn and share a great deal.

It’s an inspiring process that we welcome you to be a part of.

Learn more about the final Voice and Vision Forum on December 1.

Women Moving Millions: What giving a million gave me in return.

Posted on by Julie Jensen

Today marks a huge day in women’s philanthropy—the official launch of the National Women Moving Millions campaign.

This campaign is the first time that women’s funds from around the world have come together—through the Women’s Funding Network—to raise more than $150 million for women’s funds around the world.  From women giving $1 million each.  In all, the campaign is designed to infuse women’s philanthropy with enough money to bring its totals to the $1 billion range.

But the campaign holds special meaning for me, since $1 million was my first significant gift to any organization, and it was a big step. My $1 million gift was an investment in Washington Area Women’s Foundation, and I sincerely believe that it changed me as much as it changed them.

Neither of us were very seasoned at the time, in 2004. They were a young organization still, and it was the first time they made a really big ask of a donor. And it was the first time I stepped up to really act upon my vision, on my true passion not only to give, but to really shift my community.

It felt bold, it felt daring, and it felt risky when I made my $1 million contribution to Stepping Stones, an initiative with a range of strategies to create self-sufficiency for women, especially single mothers.

A new initiative. An untested initiative.

I had no idea if it would work. I only knew that as a single mother who went to law school when it was tough for women to do so, it felt right to invest in other single mothers, women who may not have the resources I did.

Today I think back on that gift, and I remember my thinking when I made it. How I had just read Rambam’s Ladder by Julie Salamon and learned of the Eight Stages of Giving, or the rungs on the ladder.

Salamon provides a thoughtful exploration of each one of Rambam’s steps, from the lowest kind of charity-giving (begrudgingly), to the highest form–the gift of self-reliance, so that the recipient, through a loan or a job, will not have to ask for help again. 

The highest rung is all about charitable actions aimed at breaking the poverty cycle and enabling the poor to establish themselves as independent and productive members of society.

But many things were flying around in my head.  How much to give?  How do we know if our gifts are being used wisely?  Is it better to give anonymously? 

Rambam argued that giving at the highest level often requires that you don’t remain anonymous. So I made the decision to actually use my name.

This gift went far beyond writing a check. It was a way of seizing my own power, of taking responsibility for a significant decision and investment, and it required me to jump in, to learn, to become an incremental part of the success of this initiative.

Today, Stepping Stones is on fire. It’s changing lives every day, providing women with training and access to jobs, the opportunity to save money and buy their own homes. The women emerging from programs funded by Stepping Stones are changing the landscape of their own lives, and of our entire community.

When I sit and listen to the stories of women who have transformed their lives by entering fields in construction or law enforcement, fields they never thought they’d be capable of entering, I can’t help but see myself in their stories.

Because whether you’re a philanthropist or a single mom working towards a better future for your family, we are all changed when we do something outside of our comfort zones, bigger in scope than anything we’ve ever done before.

Women Moving Millions is so exciting for me not only because it’s a first, and it’s bigger than anything anyone has ever imaged for women’s philanthropy, but because I see such potential in the women who will emerge, many for the first time, to step up and invest their success, their wealth, their resources, their voice—with power, with certainty, with impact—in other women.

I know the adventure that awaits them, and I can see, just from my experience here in Washington with The Women’s Foundation and Stepping Stones, the rippling impact that this is going to have on our communities, on our country, on the world.

Women’s philanthropy—and the power it has to change lives and communities—is about to be lit on fire. And we’re all about to feel the warmth and light of it.

Thanks to The Women's Foundation for the experience of a lifetime!

Posted on by Sharon Wise

Dear Washington Area Women’s Foundation,

My name is Sharon Wise and I’m one of the students enrolled in the Female Property Management Certificate training at Southeastern University (a Stepping Stones Jobs Fund Grantee Partner).
 
I just wanted to let you know that everything is great!  I love my class and I am learning so much. I am in a communications class and the facilitators are so funny and smart.  I did not know there were so many ways to email, write letters and express oneself.

I thank you all 100 times over for allowing me to have an opportunity to be in this class!  My self esteem has increased because I feel I am part of something. 

I have not missed one class and I am excited on Tuesday, for I know Wednesday is coming. 

We had a quiz yesterday and I know I Aced it!  Hurray!

I want to share my experiences so that you all will know that someone is benefiting and learning.  I love this class!

This is an experience of a lifetime.

I just want to thank you all so much for just doing the work that you all do to make it possible for women like myself to go through this fabulous program, and I just look forward to being one of your success stories.

Sharon Wise is one of thousands of women throughout our region benefiting from the power of giving together. 

Join us for our 2007 Leadership Luncheon to meet some of these women, the Grantee Partners who are serving them and to learn how YOU can become a part of the Washington area’s most powerful wave of women’s philanthropy that is changing lives, and our community, every day.