Evaluation in Action: Demonstrating Results, Measuring Impact and Informing Change in Financial Capability

By Deborah Visser and Daria Sheehan, Guest Contributors

Deborah Visser is director for Success Measures, investments and partnerships at NeighborWorks America and Daria Sheehan is senior program officer at the Citi Foundation. This post is also available on CFED's Inclusive Economy blog.

The financial capability field is always looking for better, more rigorous ways to demonstrate results of financial coaching, financial education, housing, credit counseling and asset-building efforts on the lives of individuals and families. To address this need, the Citi Foundation joined a small group of funders and practitioners to collaborate with the Success Measures program (www.successmeasures.org) at NeighborWorks America to develop and field test a comprehensive set of financial capability outcome indicators and data collection instruments.

We are excited by the prospect that these new tools will make it easier for practitioners to measure changes in low- and moderate-income consumers’ financial status, attitudes, behaviors, resilience and more. To encourage the financial capability sector to embed outcome measurement as a standard practice, The Success Measures Financial Capability Indicators and Tools are now available to the field free of charge.

What makes these tools distinct from other traditional measures that gauge the effectiveness of financial capability efforts is the inclusion of behavioral tools that address concrete things people do, as well as the strategies they employ to manage financial change over time. Data collected from The Success Measures Financial Capability Indicators and Tools can be tailored by community-based organizations to conduct structured conversations with clients on financial issues, inform changes in program design, and communicate results to a wide range of stakeholders. Financial capability funders, researchers and policymakers can analyze client data across multiple organizations working toward the same outcomes with the same set of shared, tested metrics to identify best practice, improve their understanding of factors that impact financial stability and promote innovation through public policy reform.

This collaborative field-building effort has already gained considerable traction. For example, the Youth Financial Empowerment (YFE) program in New York City has used the new tools to determine attitudes and behaviors regarding financial practices of youth in its program and is continuing to track changes over time. This will enable YFE to better help its clients cultivate a mindset about saving money that would support the transition from foster care to independence. In Oakland, the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation has been able to make use of the tools to help its clients begin to learn how to reduce their debt, while also beginning to accumulate savings.

To sustain the momentum of these and similar efforts, a two-year, $5 million grant from the Citi Foundation is supporting a scaling initiative aimed at delivering state-of-the-art financial education and coaching needed to enable families to build their savings, reduce debt and better manage their finances. As an important component of the initiative, 31 organizations are receiving training and technical assistance to use the Success Measures Financial Capability tools to conduct real-time evaluations of how the financial knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of their clients change over time.

We welcome your feedback on these new financial capability outcome evaluation tools and look forward to learning how practitioners are using them in their asset-building work. Check out the tools in the Citi-funded publication here: www.successmeasures.org/fctools.html.

Has Spring Sprung in Your Community?

The 100^th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossoms marks another start to Spring in the Nation’s capitol, and the warmer weather is a chance for us to get out and green our communities. Several NeighborWorks Network members are already hard at work infusing sustainability into community development.

Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C.

New Kensington CDC’s Sustainable 19125 aims to make 19125 the greenest zip code in Philadelphia. Their blog offers some information about all topics green and sustainable, like this one about a community compost. 

Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland shared this Cleveland.com rain garden article on how to make your own rain garden. These beautiful, yet functional, green spaces can help prevent water pollution and homeowners may be able to take tax credits from them. 

Argenta Community Development Corporation created the Vestal Urban Farming Project in North Little Rock, AR. You can learn more about this sustainable community-based food system, and see videos, in the recent Today’s THV news feature on the first urban farm in North Little Rock.

To learn about other great “Spring greening” ideas, visit the NeighborWorks Organizations Green Efforts page and your idea on Neighborworks Facebook and Twitter channels.

Down Payment Programs Boost Neighborhood Stabilization Efforts

By Marietta Rodriguez
Deputy Director of
National Homeownership
Programs & Lending

There are many steps to rebuild neighborhoods decimated by the foreclosure crisis, but an essential step is to get homeowners back to living in the homes that tragically were lost to foreclosure. NeighborWorks America believes that if new homeowners begin moving into many of the homes in neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosure, neighborhood stabilization will happen more quickly for those housing markets. 

Toward that objective, NeighborWorks America has focused its energy and expertise to support the targeted use of down payment assistance to help buyers afford a home, while simultaneously providing the  homebuyer education that we believe helps ensure that buyers get the right home, the right mortgage and the fullest understanding of the costs of being a homeowner for sustainable homeownership.

The initiative that we're behind is called NeighborhoodLIFT^SM,  an alliance between NeighborWorks America, Wells Fargo and Company, and local members of the NeighborWorks network, which was recently featured in American Banker and noted in the Chicago Tribune.

NeighborWorks America has been helping the NeighborWorks network to fund down payment assistance programs for years, and we’ve been consistent in linking down payment help with homebuyer education. In fact, in 2011 the NeighborWorks network provided homebuyer education to more than  39,769 households.  Low down payment and down payment assistance programs did not create the housing crisis, that much we know for sure. But some analysts of the housing crisis think otherwise and that has made many lenders skittish about the viability of down payment assistance programs.

Wells Fargo demonstrated leadership in developing NeighborhoodLIFT, and by expressing confidence in the effectiveness of homebuyer education and down payment assistance to help homebuyers make the kind of choices that lead to long-term homeownership success.

Homebuyer education is key component of the homeownership philosophy of NeighborWorks America and  homeownership is a big part of our neighborhood stabilization strategies.

Although mortgage rates are close to all-time lows, many potential homebuyers remain on the sidelines without the down payment that they need, or the information that would make them comfortable purchasing a home in a neighborhood with few “bumps and bruises”. As recent news articles have said, NeighborhoodLIFT helps on both fronts.

Homeownership Video Contest Winners

Last month $5,000 in prizes were awarded at the Reclaiming the Vision of Homeownership Symposium in Los Angeles to video contest winners.Three videos were selected out of the many submissions sent in to NeighborWorks America. The winners are all so different and were chosen because of their originality and creativity showing the meaning of homeownership.

The video contest was designed to provide an opportunity for nonprofit housing counseling agencies to creatively portray, through the use of video, what homeownership has meant to the customers they have served in the past, or the dream it represents to customers they are currently serving.

Congratulations to the Winners
First Place: Summit Combined Housing Authority in  Breckenridge,CO
Hope for a Home in the High Country.

 
Second Place: Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland,OR
Sharing Our Stories of Home. 



Third Place: Tabor Community Services in Lancaster, PA
Homeownership 2012.

Board Chair Thomas Curry Visits Foundation Communities Apartments, Learning Center

By Celine Thomasson
NeighborWorks America
Rocky Mountain District

NeighborWorks America Chairman of the Board Thomas Curry took time out of his demanding schedule as Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation director to visit Peter's Colony, a 160 unit apartment community in Carrollton, Texas.  Peter's Colony is owned by Foundation Communities, a member of the NeighborWorks Network.

Director Curry visited the apartment of resident Angela Carter and stopped by one of the children’s programs offered at their on-site Learning Center.  Foundation Communities Executive Director Walter Moreau gave the history of the community which was purchased in 1995 by Foundation Communities from the Resolution Trust Corporation.

The 30- year-old apartments are well kept through renovation and weatherization work. NeighborWorks America grants helped with construction of the on-site Learning Center. Rosa Rios Valdez, CEO of Business & Community Lenders of Texas, also participated in the tour and was able to share many of her experiences as a member of the NeighborWorks Network with Director Curry. Valdez talked about the importance of community banks and BCL of Texas’s work in rural communities.

Although time did not permit a visit to the BCL of Texas NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center in Dallas, Jan McNerney, director of Homeownership at BCL, spoke about their important work in homeownership and foreclosure prevention throughout the Dallas and Ft.Worth areas.

"It was a privilege to have the gift of Director Curry’s time to visit with residents, children and the NeighborWorks organizations executive directors," said Gary Wolfe, Rocky Mountain district director. "It speaks volumes to his dedication to NeighborWorks America."  

 From left to right: FDIC, Deputy Director Kenyon Kilber; Foundation Communities, Executive Director Walter Moreau; BCL of Texas, Director of Homeownership Jan McNerney; NeighborWorks America, Rocky Mountain District Director Gary Wolfe; Foundation Communities, Director of Programs Julian Huerta; BCL of Texas, CEORosa Rios Valdez; FDIC, Director Thomas Curry;  Peter’s Colony Resident Services Coordinator Tamyra Belo and Lori Lozano.