Network News

Although most states, including Indiana, enjoyed a slow-growth of the middle class between 2016 - 2017, a staggering number of households have not recovered to the levels of 2000. Since the Great Recession of 2008, the middle class has not rebounded financially as well as economists would have hoped, leading to growing concern from experts.

According to “Bound: How Race Shapes the Outcomes of American Cities,” a new study from Prosperity Now which uses the most recent city-level data from the Prosperity Now Scorecard, more than 80 percent of U.S. residents now living in a metropolitan area. However, the benefits of living in these densely populated areas are not shared equally, especially when it comes to the economic well-being of different racial groups. 

Researchers discovered that residential segregation remains one of the main forces driving disparity amongst racial groups

Join the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network for a webinar featuring A&O Steering Committee Member Jake Brown, Assistant Vice President and Manager, CRA at First Merchants Bank, for a discussion on getting the most out of the community reinvestment act (CRA), the changes being discussed at the federal level, and more.

With the month of April denoted as Fair Housing Month, I found it important to note the close ties between fair housing and asset building. Homeownership is one of the key ways families build assets. In order to lead strong, stable lives, families need to be able to buy or rent stable housing, which is the fundamental purpose of the fair housing laws.

Dear Members of the Indiana General Assembly,

The undersigned organizations ask for your support to establish a 36 percent APR cap on small loans in Indiana. These loans are currently offered at rates of up to 391 percent APR. We also ask you to reject any bills establishing new loan products or expanding the allowable fees or interest on existing loan products if they exceed this 36 percent threshold, and apply the 36 percent threshold only to small loans.  

In the wake of the defeat of SB 104 and the state senate’s passing of SB 613, Hoosiers from around the state have been standing up and voicing their concerns. Here are a few of the articles we’ve compiled (listed in order of publication date):

In cities across the nation, the racial wealth gap is increasing each day, and marginalized communities are being left behind. According to the African-American Financial Capability Initiative, a coalition comprised of more than 30 organizations across the nation, the racial wealth gap has grown three-fold in the past 25 years.

According to a new Asset Funders Network report, Millennial women represent more than 30 percent of the U.S. female population but, unfortunately, are not receiving the benefits from current economic policies and systems despite rising college attendance rates and career opportunities.

On March 11, Prosperity Indiana and the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network were joined by dozens of military and veterans’ groups, faith-based organizations and churches, social service providers, community organizations, concerned citizens, and more at the Statehouse for a Reject Senate Bill 613 press conference. 

The members of the Midwest Asset Building Conference Planning Committee [The Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM), Illinois Asset Building Group, Prosperity Indiana/the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network, Ohio CDC Association and Minnesota Asset Building Coalition] are currently seeking innovative and engaging speakers and presenters focused on asset building and financial empowerment in the Midwest.

The Indiana Senate is poised to vote on a measure Tuesday that would allow payday and subprime lenders to charge interest rates on small loans at levels currently classified as felony loan sharking. 

The payday loan industry has pushed for similar legislation for the past three years, only to be rebuffed amid concerns from social service organizations and others who see such high-interest rates as predatory.

In the wake of the SB 104 committee hearing on January 23, 2019, the Indianapolis Star wrote an article discussing both sides of the payday loan argument, featuring interviews with A&O Steering Committee member Erin Macey, Senior Policy Analyst at the Indiana Institute for Working Families, and other friends of the Network.

Combining robust data at the national and state levels, an interactive map and relevant policy information, the 2019 Prosperity Now Scorecard is a powerful tool for revealing the financial lives of Americans beyond the headlines.

During the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network Breakfast on January 30, attendees will be the first to learn of new changes that are coming to the Network. They will also have a chance to hear from multiple A&O Steering Committee members. Meet the breakfast presenters by reading their bios below:

Welcome to the start of a new semester…one ripe with opportunity, learning, social awkwardness - if you’re anything like I was in college – and, of course, all of the costs associated with it.

If you’re like a lot of people in the United States, you’ve probably thought a lot about having to pay for you, your child, your grandchild, and/or anyone else close to you, to go to school.  I’ll admit that it’s a pretty daunting thing to deal with, especially when you look at how it will affect your financial life.  While I’m not going to attempt to write something that will make all of your worries go away, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about various ways you can pay for school and mention a few things you should not do.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to gut the existing payday rule by removing the Ability-to-Repay provision, which required short term, small dollar lenders to take a borrower’s ability to repay a loan into account before issuing it. According to Prosperity Now, this revision would be a huge blow to advocacy efforts to stop the debt trap.

According to a new brief from the Asset Funders Network, women age 45 - 65 represent the first generation to benefit from expanded access to higher education, credit, and other asset building opportunities. The opportunities stem from policy changes that came about as part of the civil rights and women’s movements in the 1960s and 1970s.

However, although record-breaking numbers of women are graduating from college and starting businesses, 15 million single women - namely Black and Latin women - have experienced substantial wealth loss in the past 20 years.

With a projected million middle skills jobs opening up in Indiana by 2024, skills-based/work-based learning is changing the way educators and employers are training, recruiting, and retaining talent to fill future workforce needs.

Work-based learning (WBL) offers a unique opportunity for individuals from diverse backgrounds to develop first-hand knowledge and skills beyond the classroom environment through industry exposure and on the job training. It provides employers with a platform to align their training needs with the actual skills necessary to be successful on the job.

Here are a few guidelines to use when building successful work based learning experiences:

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs – released ‘Pushing the Envelope: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Under the Trump Administration’ report to Congress.