Money Matters In Family And Marriage

The family unit has long been the basis of economic activity: the stronger the family, the stronger the society and greater its achievements.

Combining asset-building strategies with family-strengthening education leverages the potential of both. While these types of services are typically delivered separately, they are deeply intertwined. Asset-building projects bolster family economic stability through economic and consumer education, credit counseling and repair, and by helping clients save money to accumulate economic assets over the long term. Family-strengthening projects, including Healthy Marriage projects, impart concrete skills to better communicate and manage and resolve conflicts. The result is more success in every area of family and married life.

Through partnerships with organizations active in family-strengthening activities, leaders of organizations that are administering AFI Projects and related asset building efforts can help families and couples:

• Better understand the values and perspectives they hold about financial matters;
• Explore family finances and budgeting;
• Resolve potential sources of friction related to money;
• Learn to manage conflict;
• Recognize and resolve deeper issues related to money management;
• Explore and discuss common money issues such as spending, budgeting, and the use of credit; and savings
• Remain intact.

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Background on Asset Building , Family-Strengthening and Healthy Marriage

Before describing the resources available to add family-strengthening strategies into your AFI Project, it is important to provide background and define the terms. While there are similarities and overlaps between asset building and family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage, there are also important distinctions to keep in mind.

ASSET BUILDING

Asset building encompasses a multitude of strategies to enable families and individuals to become and remain economically self sufficient. AFI Projects focus on one strategy in particular, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Implementation of IDAs includes financial education and asset-specific training, as well as other supportive services.

Individual Development Accounts

IDAs are a special form of savings account in which the savings are matched. IDAs help low-income working families and individuals save to build assets and acquire the skills to grow them. Savings, deposited with a bank or other financial institution, are usually set aside monthly over a period of from six-months to up to several years. Participant savings are matched by the AFI Project. Projects vary in their match rates: most offer $2 in match funds for every $1 saved, while projects are allowed to match the savings at a higher rate. The maximum amount of match funds that can be provided to an individual is approximately $4,000, but this varies given the circumstances.

Under AFI, IDAs can be used for:

• First-time home purchase;
• Starting or expanding a small business;
• Obtaining post-secondary education, including vocational training; and
• Assisting a dependent to acquire one of these forms of economic assets.

Under some IDA projects not supported through the AFI program, participants can use their IDA for additional purposes including automobile purchase and home repair.

Financial Education

Helping families and couples learn money management and planning skills is at the core of every AFI Project. Financial education-also referred to as financial literacy, financial training, money management, and economic literacy training-provide participants with useful information and helpful resources on many topics including:

• Goal setting;
• Budgeting;
• Credit repair or establishment;
• Cash management;
• Investment and saving products and strategies;
• Bank products and services;
• Tax preparation; and
• Retirement planning.

Asset-Specific Training

In financial education, AFI Project participants first gain an overview of the financial system and how it can be accessed to build assets, as well as tools for personal financial planning. The next step is learning about the specific types of asset they plan to purchase with their IDA savings. Issues typically covered in asset-specific training include:

• Home purchase through homebuyer clubs and first-time homebuyer projects;
• Micro-enterprise development, including business planning and marketing;
• Pre-purchase counseling about other assets; and
• Pursuing educational opportunities and career counseling.

AFI Projects often provide this type of training in partnership with a number of organizations such as:

• Financial institutions;
• Housing counseling agencies;
• Realtors;
• Consumer awareness groups;
• Small Business Development Centers;
• Colleges and universities;
• Job training programs; and
• Other community groups.

AFI Grants and Project Management

OCS awards grants of up to $1,000,000 for five-year AFI Projects. Typically, the projects are managed by community or faith-based organizations and State, local and Tribal government agencies such as:

• Community Action Agencies;
• Community Development Corporations;
• Community Development Financial Institutions;
• Faith-based organizations;
• Refugee Resettlement Agencies;
• Local United Ways;
• State Human Services Agencies and Housing Agencies; and
• Other nonprofits.

Many organizations that implement AFI Projects also provide vital family-strengthening services, such as Head Start, domestic violence prevention, employment services, literacy classes, and more.

FAMILY-STRENGTHENING AND HEALTHY MARRIAGE

While organizations involved in asset-building, family-strengthening and healthy marriage find many commonalities on which to base their strategies, it is important to review fundamental approaches.

American Family

The American family is a core component of every community. Families come in many forms, including:

• Couples;
• Couples with children;
• Single people with children;
• Families with multiple generations;
• Extended families;
• Blended families; and
• Other variations.

A family's specific form is not nearly as important as its function as a support unit that enables and empowers its members to realize their individual and collective goals and play a constructive role in building a better community.

Family-Strengthening Education

Family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage education teaches individuals and families relationship and communication skills that will sustain strong families and healthy marriages. Organizations that use these approaches provide the support, knowledge, and skills for building stable families that can achieve their goals, including financial goals.

Family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage is not about :

• Trapping anyone in an abusive or violent relationship;
• Forcing anyone to marry or stay married; or
• Withdrawing supports from or diminishing in any way the important work of individuals and single parents.

Family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage are not new names for marriage counseling. Marriage counseling is a more intensive process built around specific issues the couple brings to the counseling experience. Counseling is probably not an appropriate broad strategy for family strengthening or marriage education in the context of an asset-building project, but it may be useful in certain circumstances. Counseling should be provided by trained counselors or therapists or clergy with family and marriage-therapy expertise. Agencies that incorporate family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage activities into their AFI Project should develop a referral list and protocol to refer couples who need more than education.

Characteristics of Successful Family-Strengthening and Healthy Marriage Activities

The most successful organizations that provide family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage activities usually exhibit several key characteristics. They focus on skill building and address important issues, such as:

• Conflict management;
• Communication skills;
• Developing and maintaining fun and friendship;
• Understanding commitment; and
• Building trust.

Adding these key concepts to asset building and financial education can only help assure the success of any AFI Project or other asset building and IDA efforts.

Family-Strengthening and Healthy Marriage Strategies Produce Results

Research demonstrates that individuals can learn skills to handle disagreement and conflict. These skills create more stable families. Group education, in which families or couples participate together in courses on communication and finances, are extremely effective.

This training helps people learn about and manage critical interpersonal relationship issues, including:

• Personality differences and similarities;
• Sexuality and intimacy;
• Expectations and roles;
• Spirituality; and
• Finances.

AFI Projects that help participants strengthen their families and marriages send a message to participants and the community: our society values strong relationships and stable families.

FAMILY-STRENGTHENING and HEALTHY MARRIAGE SERVICE PROVIDERS

A wide variety of organizations provide family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage education and services. While the family is the most intimate of private institutions, it is and always has been the building block of society. We all have a stake in strong and healthy families.

Organizations providing family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage education and services include:

• Secondary schools and colleges;
• Faith-based organizations;
• Secular nonprofits;
• Cooperative Extension Services;
• Refugee services;
• Military family service groups;
• State social service agencies; and
• Community and state marriage coalitions.

These skills can be taught in numerous settings. The participation of community groups makes training more accessible. A number of skill-building activities can be adapted for the particular culture and faith of participants, which increases their inclusiveness. Examples of effective activities are included in the tools section of this guide.

Many Types of Teachers

Individuals who provide family-strengthening or Healthy Marriage must be trained in facilitation and knowledgeable about the topic, but they are not required to undergo extensive study or have a particular academic credential. Those who lead classes on these topics include:

• Laypersons;
• Public and private school teachers;
• Clergy; and
• Mental health professionals.

Facilitator training for these topics are widely available and the facilitator training typically lasts only a few days. The Resource section of this guidebook includes information about several organizations that provide training for family- and marriage-strengthening facilitators.

Benefits of Marriage Education

Marriage education is not only for married couples. Individuals in any relationship can use the skills in many aspects of their lives, including in their family relationships. Individuals can take courses throughout their lifetimes. Courses can be adapted for special populations. Some schools provide marriage education and skill-building to youth. Premarital education strategies are prominent in the Federal / State Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and other Federal projects. Family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage projects focus specific services on the relationships between parents and children.

Our society's commitment to healthy families is reflected in the thousands of family- and marriage-strengthening organizations and projects available across the nation.

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Approaches For Adding A Family-Strengthening And Healthy Marriage Strategy Into Your AFI Project

Many participants in AFI Projects are couples, families, and future families. Several AFI Projects across the country focus particularly on families. A few have even named their savings products "Family Development Accounts" instead of Individual Development Accounts. These projects seek to make a clear connection between asset building and the family.

AFI Projects are using two broad strategies to emphasize family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage objectives: Education and Partnerships.

Education Strategies

Most financial and asset-specific education curricula used in AFI Projects are designed for individuals; however, curricula are easily expanded to make them useful for couples and families. Here are six concrete suggestions for adding a family dimension to your AFI Project's financial education component. The Resource section of this guide includes information on where to find more information on the curricula or strategies discussed here.

Suggestion 1: Use a Relationship-Oriented Financial Education Curriculum

Since everyone is likely to be involved in family relationships of one kind or another, a relationship-based curriculum could add value to trainings. In these types of curricula, the participant family members:

• Receive training as a unit;
• Develop a budget together;
• Learn about and, if necessary, improve their credit situation as a unit;
• Explore their financial values, both similarities and differences;
• Jointly select their asset choice;
• Jointly prepare a savings plan to acquire the asset; and
• Jointly develop a plan to maintain and protect their asset.

Suggestion 2: Design Relationship-Centered Financial Education for Couples and Families

Families are about relationships. Financial education delivered within the context of relationships-education that promotes discussion and reflection- is more effective and meaningful.

Relationship-centered training could include conversations and exercises about issues such as:

• How personality differences can influence individual views on money and money management within the family;
• How each partner's childhood family managed and resolved differences about money;
• How money is often a "taboo" subject for families;
• What each person in a family may have "inherited" regarding the emotional meaning of money;
• How the family as a unit defines its expectations about money;
• How best to work together to resolve conflicts about money;
• How the family assigns roles and responsibilities regarding household money management (e.g., who balances the checkbook, when the couple discusses money);
• What strategies the family can use to develop and stick to a household budget, including a savings goal; and
• Expectations and approaches to using credit cards.

Suggestion 3: Create or Adapt an "Add-on" Family- and Marriage-Strengthening Module or Workshop to an Existing Financial Education Component

While integrating relationship-based training into the AFI Project is optimal, sometimes this is not practical. If it is not possible for both members of a couple to attend the general training sessions, AFI Project trainers may wish to add a stand alone or special curriculum module about financial literacy issues for couples and families. This is one way to ensure that both partners in the family discuss money, collaborate on financial management decisions, and work together toward their asset goal.

Similarly, AFI Projects can offer special workshops or training for married participants. These would focus on how couples, as life partners, can enhance their financial well-being by working together, communicating and having common goals, and shaping a common future. Just as financial institution staff and real estate agents are invited to give workshops on banking or home buying, a qualified family- and marriage-strengthening specialist can be invited to provide a workshop or a series of sessions for couples. Special workshops or modules could include topics such as:

• Financial Communication that Works;
• Money Matters in Family and Marriage;
• Building Wealth through Marriage;
• Stable Financial Management Leads to a Stable Family;
• Love and Money;
• Small Business Finances and Your Family;
• How Homeownership Affects Financial Management; and
• Money Personalities.

Suggestion 4: Offer Private Meetings with Couples or Families

AFI Project staff and case workers can arrange discussion sessions with each client family. This is a good opportunity to talk about the family's budget, assess whether couples and other family members are aware of and committed to saving toward the agreed upon goal, and discuss different values and strategies.

Tools such as marital inventories can be used to address issues of communication, finance, decision-making, and other topics. These instruments are tailored to encourage conversations between couples around joint decision-making. Premarital and marital inventories provide couples with an objective assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Most marital inventories include couples-focused financial education.

Suggestion 5: Train Staff as Family-Strengthening or Healthy Marriage Educators

A number of organizations offer curricula and train-the-trainer programs for laypersons to prepare them as family, couple, or marriage educators. These programs typically last from one to three days. They provide thorough training on effective classroom techniques to help individuals, couples, and families learn conflict resolution and communication skills. This type of training helps educators become effective within diverse income or cultural contexts by incorporating adaptive training techniques.

Suggestion 6: Pair Families and Couples as Role Models and Mentors

Families helping families can be an effective strategy for AFI Projects. Pairing successful couples as role models and mentors to couples who are entering AFI Projects may be a particularly good approach for low-income families living in at-risk communities. For example, the Catholic Charities organization in Dallas , Texas , has reported success using in-home mentoring projects for newly arrived refugees. Program mentors are successful refugees who have benefited from family- and marriage-strengthening courses such as "Power of Two" and "Family Wellness." Selected families or couples should also have careful training in mentoring techniques in addition to their own training experience.

PARTNERSHIP STRATEGIES

Adding a family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage strategies to an AFI Project may be as simple as developing relationships with other community organizations that offer these services. With the current focus on building strong families and couples throughout the nation, appropriate organizations are likely to be in your area. More information on the partners or curricula referenced below is in the Resources section of this guide.

Suggestion 1: Identify Family-Strengthening and Healthy Marriage Educators in Your Community to Provide Training for Your Participants

Family-strengthening workshops are offered in almost every community. Education services, including those providing training in nationally recognized curricula such as "Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills" (PAIRS), and "Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program" (PREP) offer relationship skill-building opportunities for participants.

Suggestion 2: Seek Referrals from Family-Strengthening and Healthy Marriage Organizations

Many community and faith-based organizations, schools, mental health clinics, churches, and individual professionals offer family- and marriage-strengthening services. If properly informed and supplied with marketing materials such as brochures, these professionals and agencies can publicize and promote your organization's asset-building project to their clients. Asset-building participants that you enroll this way will already have access to family- and marriage-strengthening training and resources.

Suggestion 3: Incorporate Family and Marriage Topics into AFI Applicant Assessments

A family-strengthening educator or specialist can help develop three or four questions that would assist your organization's AFI Project staff to identify families and couples who could benefit from family strengthening or marriage education. Further, any participant families who are experiencing marital strain or conflict that is inhibiting their progress in the asset-building program can be referred to a marriage specialist.

Suggestion 4: Develop Family and Healthy Marriage Resource Reference Materials at Your Agency

Family and marriage reference materials can be an important asset for your organization. A collection can offer a variety of informative handouts and brochures, a videotape/DVD library, and books on family and marriage strengthening. Brochures can be offered in several languages. Material should be available for use within or outside your agency. A space in which participants can view program-related videos or DVDs would be ideal.

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Step By Step: How To Incorporate Family-Strengthening And Healthy Marriage Components Into Your AFI Project

It can be relatively simple to add a family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage activities into an existing AFI Project. Effectiveness requires careful planning, however. Here is a six-step roadmap to help you succeed.

Step 1: Assess Your Organizational Objectives and Capacity

Before getting started, your organization should take the time to assess whether and how family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage fits with your objectives and capacity. Some organizations already have the capacity to offer relationship education. Many others already have strong community partners with this capacity. Organizations that do not have internal resources or strong community partners may choose either to hire or train staff or to explore potential partnerships. Here are some questions to consider:

• Do family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage fit your organization's priorities and goals?
• Will a focus on relationship-based education improve the quality of your AFI Project and other asset-building services?
• Will adding an emphasis on family and marriage improve your organization's services for potential participants and the community?
• What staff and expertise does your agency currently possess for providing family and marriage strengthening services?
• What expertise and experience is available from partner organizations-or potential partner organizations-in your community, State, or region?
• Who are the potential partners in your community that offer these services?
• Does your organization have the financial resources to administer this work? Does it have partnership or prospects for developing such resources?

Step 2: Re-evaluate the Needs of Potential Participants

Adding family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage to your organization's menu of services enables you to offer a comprehensive approach that will help attract additional participants and/or encourage current participants to continue with enhanced support. Take the time to examine your organization's client base. Explore the groups of potential participants who could be served. Consider implementing short interviews or surveys with a sample of current AFI Project participants and clients of your organization's other projects. Conduct community focus groups to look beyond your current clientele or meet with staff of potential partner organizations. In this re-evaluation of potential participants' needs, ask these questions:

Who are the AFI Project's current participants? What percentage are married couples? What percentage are unmarried couples?

• Does your organization serve low-income families or couples who are not aware of the AFI Project and its IDAs?
• How would non-participating families and couples benefit from strategies that incorporate relationship building around financial management?
• What cultural values and perceptions do potential participants already have regarding family education?
• Will adding family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage services increase the number of people who apply to participate in your AFI Project overall?

Step 3: Offer Strategies as Divers e as Your Participants

The best family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage activities are flexible. They celebrate the diversity of participants. Marriage is a complex mix of family histories, emotions, behavior patterns, sexual issues, and values, including spiritual and religious motivations. It is important to use techniques that fully respect the myriad differences found in families and couples.

The strategies should be sensitive to the demographic characteristics of families and couples, including religious faith and income level. Your organizations should explore these issues with clients, particularly client couples. For example, when implementing a partner or referral approach, always take into account the expertise of the partner organization along with the preferences of the client families and couples. The couple may prefer a certain context, whether religious or secular. It is important for the AFI Project staff to be aware of specific concerns.

Step 4: Choose the Right Relationship-Based Financial or Asset-Specific Curricula

Numerous organizations produce and distribute relationship-based curricula. Professional training opportunities and train-the-trainer classes are available to enable laypersons to become certified family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage educators. Some curricula require no formal facilitator training and are ready to teach "out of the box." Many state and local government agencies have engaged social workers, welfare workers, and extension services to create relationship curricula. Colleges and universities, in particular social work and consumer sciences departments, are often aware of good curricula that address family and marriage issues. There are also excellent skill-based marriage and relationship curricula for high schools being developed across the nation.

Step 5: Choose the Right Family-Strengthening or Healthy Marriage Partner

Choosing the right partner organization is critical to success. Here is a suggested process that has worked for AFI Project leaders around the nation:

Research

The first step is to identify all potential partners. Individual professional practitioners are located in many communities. The following types of organizations also may be good partners to seek out:

Faith-based and community-based service organizations. Local faith-based social service organizations such as Catholic Charities, Jewish Family and Children's Services, and Lutheran Social Services specialize in family, premarriage, and marriage enrichment. Community-based organizations such as Family Services Agencies, Community Action Agencies, and local United Way organizations often include among their services enrichment, education workshops, credit repair, and financial education for families and couples.

Professional organizations. Many professionals belong to distinct organizations, often with state and local chapters. These include medical societies, the National Association of Social Workers, American Psychological Association, National Board of Certified Counselors, American Association of Family and Marriage Therapy, and others. These groups typically have projects devoted to family life.

Places of worship. Many churches, synagogues, mosques, and other faith groups provide family and marital services. Check with the local pastor, rabbi, imam, or other religious leaders.

Schools, colleges and universities. An increasing number of primary, secondary and post-secondary schools offer parent education and family-strengthening services.

Mental health clinics and hospital clinics. Local mental health centers and hospital wellness centers may offer marital and family enrichment classes. They also offer instruction in stress management.

State and community marriage initiatives: Many states and communities have recently established family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage coalitions.

In addition to contacting potential partners directly, there are also resources in many communities to help find partners. These include:

Information and referral services. In many communities, nonprofit organizations such as the Red Cross or United Way provide information and referral services for the region. Resources are listed in phone directories or on the Internet. In addition, many communities have established special referral telephone centers, such as "211" numbers for service options.

State licensing boards. These state agencies may help in some instances, though their services may be limited to information on the licensing and good standing of a certain professional.

Individuals. Your network of contacts likely includes individuals who have participated in education and enrichment projects and are willing to share information about their experience.

See the Resources section of this guide for a list of websites that will be helpful for identifying partners.

Find the Right Fit

After identifying potential family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage education partners, the next step is to choose the partner that would be a good match for your organization. Here are some criteria that can help in the selection of partners. Please note that some of these elements may vary community by community, so it is always best to ensure that potential partnerships are relevant in a particular community context.

Philosophy. It is important to partner with community or faith-based organizations that share guiding principles and visions for supporting the community. Know the mission and ethics of potential partner organizations. Take the time to speak with the organization's executive and staff to ensure they embrace values and goals that are consistent with your organization's mission.

Participant fit. Identify partner organizations that will be comfortable with, and experienced in, working with the languages and cultures of the participants in your AFI Project. It may be helpful to partner with multiple organizations to ensure coverage for all the different expectations and interests of your participants.

Religious and cultural sensitivity. Make sure to understand the cultural and religious assumptions of a potential partner organization. It is not enough to learn about abstract principles. Ask family-strengthening providers how they would handle specific scenarios. Ask for case studies of successful projects.

Community Reputation. A professional's or organization's reputation in the community at large and among your AFI Project's participants may be very important. Reputation can signal whether the family-strengthening program is reliable.

Specialized training and experience. Before partnering with an agency of educators or counselors, verify their credentials. Feel free to ask what specialized training and experience they have. Also, clarify what proportion of their work has been in family- strengthening or Healthy Marriage with the group or groups to which your participants belong. Ask the same questions about the organization of which a professional is a member. Back-up by other staff and support in an organization committed to and experienced in family relationships can enhance the chances of success. If the professional is in private practice, ask if they use consultants. If so, ask what qualifications are required of their consultants.

Cost. Since AFI Project participants are predominantly low-income, it is important to find partners that can offer services at no or low cost or on a sliding scale fee.

Step 6: Implementation

Enhancing an AFI Project with family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage principles requires careful implementation. Factors to consider include:

• Scheduling. Families and couples juggle work, school, recreation, and other activities. Take these schedules into consideration and be flexible in meeting participants' needs.
• Location. Holding classes in community settings, such as schools and houses of worship, may make training more accessible, but do not forget to maximize privacy of participants.
• Fees. Develop partnerships with other community groups that can provide a no- or low-cost option or even an exchange for services.
• Language. Language and literacy can be a barrier to participation for both partners. Requiring both partners in a couple to participate may mean re-assessing the literacy level of the course materials and strategies to ensure active participation and discussion by both partners.
• Cultural Relevancy. Since many AFI Projects work with refugee or immigrant populations, it is important that family- and marital- education activities are carried out within the cultural context of participants. Understanding the cultural norms and values of participants will be important. Several AFI Projects allow cultural adaptations to be included in the training. See the Resources section of this guide for more information.

Step 7: Funding

Adding a family-strengthening or Healthy Marriage strategy into your AFI Project may open opportunities to access additional funds from state and local governments, foundations, and faith-based organizations. For example, a group that demonstrates that its community effort includes the involvement of multiple sectors and has leaders trained and ready to offer marriage education classes may be eligible for funding from new sources.

Step 8: Evaluation

Measurement and documentation of program outcomes is always important. It ensures effective project management and demonstrates to funders and policy makers the value of the program to participants and the community. AFI Projects currently track and report several key factors, including:

• Demographic characteristics of participants;
• The number of individual and joint accounts by asset goals;
• The amount of participant savings and the amount of IDA match funds earned;
• The value of the assets purchased (and the amount of other funds leveraged for the purchase);
• The number of participants in financial education activities;

• Demographic characteristics of both partners in the client family.
• The number of couples who participate in financial education, asset specific training, and other family or marriage-related services.
• The effectiveness of the collaboration between asset-building project staff and family- strengthening staff.
• Participant satisfaction with services.
• Participant perceptions of how adding family-strengthening education has affected their lives, their children, and their relationship with their partner/spouse/children.
• The effectiveness of services over time.

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Conclusion

Strong families and couples, enhanced economic development, and strong communities go hand in hand. Many of the same skills that guarantee a strong family-budgeting, communication, dispute resolution, understanding core goals and values-are necessary to successfully build assets and achieve financial goals. Family-strengthening and Healthy Marriage activities increase the capacity to develop successful relationships, which are the basis of personal, social, and financial advancement.

For more information, please consult the Resources section of this guide, or contact the Assets for Independence Resource Center at the Office of Community Services. Telephone: (202) 401-4626; Email: AFIProgram@acf.hhs.gov; and website: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/assetbuilding

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Acknowledgments

The Office of Community Services would like to thank the many people and organizations who contributed to this guide:  Rita Bowen, Debra Carr, Judith Charlick, Erin Donovan, George Doub, Alan Gambrell, Susan Heitler, Esther Holtwick, Natalie Jenkins, John Jordan, Olivia Mellan, Ironelly Mora, Ellen Purcell, Kathryn Robredo, and Anne Yeoman.  We also thank the staff of the Institute for Social and Economic Development who did significant research about this topic and produced the initial drafts of this guidebook: John Else, Lisa Budzilowicz, Karen Dabson, Vikki Frank, Amy Shir, and Karen Walkington.

Office of Community Services

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