Publications and Reports

AFI Reports to Congress

The Office of Community Services provides reports to Congress on the status of AFI Program implementation. The reports are based largely on data submitted annually by each grantee, as required by the program authorizing legislation. OCS has submitted the following reports:

National Evaluation

AFI is a demonstration program established to investigate new strategies for helping low-income families become economically self-sufficient. To better evaluate effective projects, the Office of Community Services is financing a long-term national process and impact evaluation of the program. Each AFI Project provides annual information for the study, and the program evaluation team conducts intensive data collection and interviews at a small but representative number of projects. The evaluation also includes information about the impact of the program on a group of approximately 600 individual project participants. Abt Associates, Inc., a social science research firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is working with OCS on the evaluation.

Special Reports

AFI sponsors special projects and additional research to add to the knowledge of asset building as an anti-poverty strategy.

IDAs and CAAs: A Natural Partnership.  This technical assistance document is for Community Action Agencies operating Individual Development Account programs.

Building Assets, Building Stronger Families. This guide includes an over with a step-by-step strategy for combining AFI Project and overall asset building approach with family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage strategies.