News

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.