Rural Endowment Goals Of Participating Community Foundations

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The RuFES Approach
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RuFES created by

• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• With assistance from
• Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group

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In this session

• Brief Intro Why RuFES
• The AECF perspective?
• Quick Overview
• The RuFES Framework
  
• Earn It / Keep It / Grow It
• Outcomes for each
• Family-focused goals for each

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AECF Core Belief
Children do well when their
families do well.Families do better when they
live in supportive communities.
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How Are Rural Communities Doing? Tough
Transitions

• Old economic drivers have lost their engine
• New economic drivers are developing
• quickly in some places
• almost imperceptibly slowly in others
• Increasingly missing the middle class
• Changing spatial realities
• The world is flat. The market is global.
• Virtual connections are required.
  Regional connections are critical
• Stressed communities (economically, socially)
  stressed families gt heightened
  vulnerability

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How Are Rural Families Doing?

• Most families work hard.
  Many struggle to get ahead.
• Low wages One in four rural workers make wages
  that would not lift a family of four above the
  poverty level.
• Multiple Jobs 25 percent hold multiple jobs,
  and 50 percent do odd jobs or self provisioning
  to make ends meet
• Environments vary Some live in struggling
  communities. Some struggle in thriving
  communities.
• Special obstacles Limited opportunities. Hard
  to find appropriate supports. Easy to find
  predatory practices.

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How Are Rural Kids Doing?

• 22 of rural children live in families in
  poverty
• 27 more live in working poor families
• That means at least one-half of all rural kids
  live in families that struggle to get by, let
  alone get ahead.

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What wouldFamily Economic Success look like?

• Families getting by and getting ahead today
• Building strong financial futures
• Contributing to and buoyed by thriving communities

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The RuFES Framework
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What does it take to increase Rural Family
Economic Success?

• Earn It Increase earnings and income
• Keep It Stabilize financial lives
• Grow It Acquire assets and build
  wealth in thriving communities

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The whole gt than the sum of the parts

• Quilted together
• With families at the center
• Intentional and targeted Remember Rising
  tides dont lift leaky boats assuming you even
  have one!

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Earn ItMake work work.Make work pay.
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Earn It Desired Result

• Confident, predictable, sufficient earnings and
  income.

• Preparing for first-time employment
  Readiness to earn. Skills match
  jobs.
• Landing and keeping a job Links
  to available jobs.
  Work infrastructure transportation, child
  care.
• Advancing in career and income
  Pipelines to better jobs. Jobs that are
  better.

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Earn It Goals Make Workers Ready

• Qualifying for a Job
• E1 Job seekers have the basic life skills
  attitudes, behaviors and reliability to succeed
  in jobs in their region.
• E2 Job seekers have the basic workplace skills
  communication, language, math and technology to
  succeed in jobs in their region.
• E3 Job seekers have the education or training
  diplomas and credentials they need to start on a
  career ladder in their region.

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Earn It Goals Make Work Work

• Landing and Keeping a Job
• E4 Job seekers connect to pipelines that
  effectively route them to employment
  opportunities in their region.
• E5 Workers have a reliable, affordable and
  efficient means of transport to get to their jobs
• E6 Workers have a reliable, convenient and
  appropriate child and dependent care they need to
  maintain a job.
• E7 People who create full- or part-time
  self-employment ventures access technical and
  financial assistance to improve their chances of
  business success.

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Earn It Goals Make Work Pay

• Advancing in a Career
• E8 Workers hold jobs that pay wages and offer
  benefits that support a stable family life.
• E9 Workers upgrade their skills and education
  credentials over time.
• E10 Workers advance along a career pathway into
  better jobs in the region.

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Keep ItLower the high cost of being
poorAvoid the money traps
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Keep It Desired Result
Financial stability
Families get by and begin to get ahead

• Establishing Financial Health Get banked. Repair
  credit. Avoid predators. Financial
  education linked to critical life events.
• Protecting Income / Decreasing Costs Close the
  gap Secure all EITC and Child Care tax benefits,
  vouchers and subsidies.
  Make good purchasing choices
  Options are available for fairly priced
  goods.

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Keep It Goals Count Every Dollar

• Establishing Financial Health
• K1 Families set short-term and long-term
  financial goals, and attain them.
• K2 Families use reasonably priced services,
  accounts and products for their savings, checking
  and other financial transactions.
• K3 Families get loans they need without using
  predatory lenders.
• K4 Families reduce their debt burdens and
  improve their credit ratings over time.

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Keep It Goals - Make Every
Dollar Count

• Protecting Income / Decreasing Costs
• K5 Families file tax returns annually.
• K6 Families secure all tax benefits for which
  they qualify, starting with those that reward
  work the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child
  Tax Credit.
• K7 Families know about and take full advantage
  of the wide range of available public and private
  services that help reduce their cost of living.
• K7 Families have ready access to affordable
  basic goods and services food, clothing,
  housing household goods and health care.

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Grow ItHelp families help themselves
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Grow It Desired Result

• Double Bottom Line for Communities and Families
• Families get ahead. Communities thrive.

• Accumulating family assets building wealth
  Start and increase savings. Purchase and
  protect assets. Attain higher
  levels of education. Prepare for retirement.
• Increasing the value of family assets in the
  community
  Homes and businesses are maintained and
  increase in value. Community economies improve.
  Charities endowments thrive.
  Better economy keeps people in the community.

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Grow It Goals Build Family
Prospects

• Accumulating Family Assets Building Wealth
• G1 Family members establish a financial cushion
  by regularly building their savings over time.
• G2 Families find, finance at competitive rates,
  and purchase quality homes in their communities.
• G3 Families build retirement-restricted
  financial assets.
• G4 Families maintain and retain the value of any
  owned or inherited land and property.
• G5 Children of working families get high-quality
  pre-K-to-12 schooling, and attain higher
  education levels that improve their familys
  economic status.

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Grow It Goals Build Community Prospects

• Increasing the Value of Family Assets in the
  Community
• G6 Family members increasingly participate in
  community activities and hold leadership roles.
• G7 Family-owned housing stock increases in
  value throughout the community.
• G8 Family purchasing power, productivity and
  entrepreneurship strengthens local businesses.
• G9 Families contribute to charitable causes and
  endowments that benefit the community and its
  people.
• G10 Families and young people want and are
  able to stay in, return to, or move to the
  community.

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RuFES Delivery Systems

• Desired Result
• Family-centered
• Simultaneous
• Sustained

• Approaches
• Make services accessible to families
• Make a quilt
• Avoid unintended consequences

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Thank You! John Molinaro Aspen Institute
Community Strategies Group jmol_at_aspeninst.org