Assets & Opportunity Scorecard to Arm Advocates with Data to Promote Financial Security

In order to advance policies that empower families to be part of the financial mainstream,

advocates need data that communicate the extent of financial insecurity facing their

constituents. To help meet that need, CFED will release its 2015 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard on January 29. This year’s Scorecard assesses 135 different outcome and policy measures to examine how all 50 states and the District of Columbia are doing when it comes to the financial security of their residents.

The data will be released in a free webinar at noon (EST) on Thursday, January 29. The webinar will be a good learning experience for organizations working to advance policies that improve the financial well-being of their state’s residents, as it will feature in-depth analysis about the Scorecard data and discussion about how advocates can use the data effectively. Sign up for the release webinar today.

There will be a number of ways for advocates to leverage the Scorecard to advance their work:

·         Customized Data Analysis. New to the Scorecard this year is a liquid asset poverty calculator, which tells you how much you’d need in savings to avoid being among the 44% of Americans living in liquid asset poverty, as well as how many people are considered asset poor in your state and local area. And, again this year, the Scorecard website will allow you to download customized charts and graphs that can be used as handouts for presentations or as leave-behinds for meetings with legislators. Visit the Media Resources page on January 29 for these and other interactive tools.

·         Downloadable Resource Guides & Customizable Policy Briefs. To accompany your state’s data, the Scorecard website allows you to download customizable briefs that assess your state on 68 different policies that span 44 different policy areas. CFED has also authored Resource Guides that go in-depth on several of the most pressing issues facing advocates as they work to expand economic opportunity. Together, these Policy Briefs and Resource Guides explain what steps states can take to promote financial security for their residents.

·         Customized Scorecard Presentations. If your organization or attendees at your events are interested in diving deeper, experts from CFED can deliver customized presentations that drill down on any or all of the 135 different measures of financial insecurity in your state. Email assetsandopportunity@cfed.org to get started.

Strong data can propel meaningful policy change, and we think the Assets & Opportunity

Scorecard is one tool that can help make a difference. We hope you’ll join us on the January 29 webinar to see all it has to offer as we work together to make 2015 a year of prosperity.