Individual Wealth Building

RESEARCH RESOURCES

Asset Building Program (New America Foundation)
www.assetbuilding.org
This website serves as a clearinghouse for news and research about Individual Development Accounts and related individual asset-building efforts.

Asset for Independence Program (Office of Community Services, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/afi/index.html
This is the website of the sole existing federal Individual Development Account program. It contains a wealth of information, including a map showing 185 IDA programs that it has funded across the country.

Assets Newsletter
www.cfed.org/think.m?id=113&groupid=assets&clusterid=1
This online periodical of the IDA Network (formerly known as Assets, A Quarterly Update for Innovators), has been published since 1998 and contains a number of informative articles about IDA activity across the country.

Center for Social Development (Washington University in St. Louis)
http://csd.wustl.edu/Pages/default.aspx
Founded by Michael Sherraden in 1994, the Center for Social Development is widely credited with developing and popularizing the idea of Individual Development Accounts as a method for promoting greater asset accumulation by low-income individuals. The Center regularly provides a directory of state-level IDA programs and publishes research papers.

IDA Pays, USC Rossier School of Education
www.usc.edu/dept/chepa/IDApays
The Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA) at USC conducted a three-year study to determine the impact, potential, and pitfalls of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) in helping low-income students gain access to and find success in higher education. This website is dedicated to their findings and provides various other resources and publications for policy stakeholders. In addition to research, the website offers information on how to start an education IDA and best practices.

Economic Success Clearinghouse/WIN, “Individual Development Accounts”
www.financeproject.org/irc_pubs.cfm?p=24&id=21
Formerly known as the Welfare Information Network, this website has a large selection of research papers written on Individual Development Accounts, as well as a good overview of innovative state and local programs.

*UPDATED*
Institute on Assets and Social Policy (Brandeis University)
http://iasp.brandeis.edu/
The Institute on Assets and Social Policy was established in 1999 to promote and advance individual asset-building policy choices that promise to reduce hunger and poverty in the nation by addressing their root causes. Its mission is to broaden and redefine the asset development concept and familiarize the public, media, and policy leaders with the asset development approach.