Framework: The Income and Asset Development Continuum
Alameda County CAN's framework is a continuum of income and asset development. Roll over the service area categories to see its description, strategies and activities.
Download Alameda County CAN's continuum of income and asset development!
Income Support includes strategies and programs that provide families with direct income or benefits that permit them to meet basic life needs including food, shelter, health care, and transportation that stabilize families and permit them to begin the process of income development.
Strategies
- Maximize enrollment in income support programs
- Assist families in leveraging social capital and networks
Activities in Alameda County
- EITC
- MediCAL
- Food Stamps
- Food Pantries
- Healthy Families
- Section 8 Housing
- Child Care Tax Credit
- Low-cost financial products (pre-paid debitcard, etc.)
Income Development and Protection includes strategies and programs that support individuals and families to increase income to a sustainable level by combinations of upward mobility in current employment, transfer to employment with upward mobility, retraining and job changes, organizing to upgrade wages and benefits, etc. while providing the wraparound supports families need to undergo these major transitions
Strategies
- Work with individuals and their families to obtain living wage jobs with benefits and upward mobility
- Provide financial counseling to help people budget and plan for asset development.
- Provide low-cost financial products and services
Activities in Alameda County
- Child Care
- Transportation
- Education /Training
- Employment Mobility
- Credit Repair and Counseling
- Work supports
Asset Accumulation includes public and private sector strategies and programs to enable households to save. These savings may be in the form of highly-liquid instruments like checking and savings accounts or less-liquid instruments like certificates of deposit, Individual Development Accounts, pension funds and Individual Retirement Accounts.
Strategies
- Increase Savings and Investments
- Home Equity
- Business Equity
- Commercial Real Estate
- Develop culturally appropriate asset building strategies
Activities in Alameda County
- Lifelong Learning Accounts
- Children's Savings Accounts
- Family Self-Sufficiency Program
- Individual Development Accounts
- Community Benefits Agreements
Asset Leveraging includes strategies and programs that enable individuals and families to transform savings into investment through capital ownership, such as buying a home or starting a business.
Strategies
- Transforming savings into investments through capital, home, and business ownership.
- Develop equity building strategies to move people from affordable to market-based housing.
Activities in Alameda County
- Cooperatives
- Lease Purchase
- Home Ownership
- Business Ownership
- Business Assistance
- Worker-owned Coops
- Profit Sharing Programs
- Community Land Trusts
- Home ownership assistance
- Resident Owned Businesses
- Access to Traditional Lender Products
- Small Business Micro-Loans
Asset Preservation includes strategies and programs that enable families to protect their assets. They are divided into the following issue areas:
- Anti-predatory lending,
- Anti-insurance redlining, and
- Health insurance
Strategies
Protect assets through:
- Avoiding predatory lending and mitigating financial crisis (e.g. foreclosure)
- Fair and reasonable insurance products
- Maintaining health insurance
Activities in Alameda County
- Investments
- Health Insurance
- Access to Insurance
- Unemployment Insurance
- Legal assistance
Asset Creation includes strategies and programs that support the creation of new and/or the conversion of existing resources into wealth-building opportunities for low- and moderate-income individuals and families.
Strategies
Create new or convert existing activities into wealth-building activities for low- and moderate-income families
Activities in Alameda County
- Resident Owned Developments
- Wealth Building Opportunities
Systemic and Policy Change: Efforts to make public policy and private systems more responsive to the needs of low to moderate income people and consumers.
Strategies
- Advocacy and organizing campaigns aimed at systems change (e.g. banking industry) and policy change (e.g. public funding)
- Provide opportunities for peer-to-peer education exchange re: predatory lending and economic opportunity
Activities in Alameda County
- Popular education re: check cashiers and predatory lending
- Work with banks to develop new and appropriate products and decrease barriers
- Advocacy (legal, affordable housing, community land trusts, IDA's)
- Grantmaking
- Re-allocation of public funds
- Self-sufficiency standard