Posted by:
Steve Dubb
Group highlights work of 14 community wealth building leaders
Innovation@cfed, an initiative of the Corporation For Enterprise Development (CFED), a nonprofit association that supports a variety of forms of individual and community wealth building, with a focus on expanding economic opportunity for low-income Americans, announced this month its newest Innovator-in-Residence. The person selected is Hilary Abell, Executive Director of Women’s Actions to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), a group based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which incubates worker-owned cooperatives that create healthy, dignified green collar jobs for low-income women. Abell, who was interviewed by Community-Wealth.org earlier this year (scroll down to read interview), was selected from a group of over 50 applicants to establish a virtual residency. As part of her residency, Abell will receive $50,000 to help scale her innovation, along with technical assistance and increased visibility via the innovation@cfed platform.
In addition to its newest Innovator-in-Residence, innovation@cfed has also selected 13 new Innovative Ideas to profile nationally, chosen from a group of over 100 proposals. The Innovative Ideas selected in 2010 are championed by Joyce Armstrong & Nora Bishop (Hartford, CT), Blair Benjamin (North Adams, MA), Kyril Calsoyas (Flagstaff, AZ), Vikki Frank (Washington, DC), Jessica Johnson (Atlanta, GA), Patricia Johnson (Oakland, CA), Rimmy Malhotra (New York, NY), Eva Margolis (St. Paul, MN), Maggie Reilly (Newberg, OR), Sherri Rice (Reno, NV), Sonia Sarkar (Brookline, MA) and Nitza Seguí Albino (Washington, DC), and Ted Howard, Executive Director of The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland (host of Community-Wealth.org).
Ted Howard was selected for his work with the Evergreen Cooperatives, a project of The Democracy Collaborative in Cleveland, Ohio that leverages anchor institution purchasing (that is, the buying power of area hospitals and universities) to develop a market for “green” services, which is leading to the development of a growing number of community businesses that provide green collar jobs. The profits and wealth generated by these businesses are controlled by a network of worker-owned cooperatives, whose employee-owners are residents from the surrounding, low-income neighborhoods. For more information on this work, see our growing web section on the Cleveland Model.
A brief overview of the 12 other innovative ideas selected:
Joyce Armstrong and Nora Bishop of Hartford, CT-based Connect-Ability were recognized for their work developing an individual development account program that enabled people to invest disability benefits into their matched savings accounts.
Blair Benjamin of North Adams, MA was recognized for his Assets for Artists program, which connects matched savings accounts and entrepreneurship training with low-income artists.
Kyril Calsoyas of Flagstaff, AZ was recognized for his work at Diné Inc., which developed a system that uses shared equipment, training and technical assistance to improve sustainability for traditional Navajo farmers.
Vikki Frank of Washington, DC was recognized for her work at Credit Builders Alliance, a group that works with 70 nonprofit lenders to help low-income Americans establish stronger credit scores.
Jessica Johnson of Atlanta, GA was recognized for her work in helping to found the Scholarship Academy, a group which focuses on reaching out to students in grades 9-12 who would not normally consider college and combines this work with information about how to save and build wealth.
Patricia Johnson of Oakland, CA was recognized for her work with Game Theory Academy, a group that uses popular education techniques such as games, news articles and popular songs to help youth aged 16-24 learn how to manage money and avoid identity theft.
Rimmy Malhotra of New York, NY was recognized for his work with Gratio Capital, which makes money-market investing accessible to low-income Americans through a “GoalMine” program that reduces the minimum required investment level to $25.
Eva Margolis of St. Paul, MN was recognized for her work with AccountAbility Minnesota for developing an alternative to costly commercial refund anticipation loans (RALs) for low-income Americans awaiting their income tax refunds that has been used to date by more than 2,500 Minnesota residents.
Maggie Reilly of Newberg, OR was recognized for her work with CASA of Oregon, which developed a program that leverages student savings by a ratio of five to one and provides withdrawals timed to tuition payment date to help students meet tuition payments and avoid accumulating excessive student loan debt.
Sherri Rice of Reno, NV was recognized for her work with the Access to Health Care Network, which uses a shared responsibility model to connect hospitals, government and nonprofits with employers, health care providers and patients to offer health care to low-income, uninsured workers at highly discounted rates.
Sonia Sarkar of Brookline, MA was recognized for her work with Project Health, which recognizes the links between health and economic well-being, and therefore uses a holistic health care model that includes nutrition, housing, job training and other resources as part of its health care “treatment.”
Nitza Seguí-Albino of Washington, DC was recognized for her work with the International Migrants Development Fund (FIDMi), which has sponsored the development of Mi Tierra Market, a cooperative market that supports low income Latino immigrants selling ethnic foods and cultural crafts in an outdoor marketplace during the weekends in Washington, DC.