Illinois Asset Building Group Advances Assets & Opportunity Scorecard

Following last month’s release of the 2007–2008 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, which compares all 50 states and the District of Columbia on family financial security, wealth, and poverty, the Illinois Asset Building Group (IABG) held an interactive forum entitled “Advancing Asset Policy in Illinois” on October 4. IABG is a state coalition of organizations led by the Shriver Center and the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights.

 The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), a national economic policy and research organization, released their scorecard, a tool rating the states and the District of Columbia on performance measures and policy initiatives such as business development, financial security, health care, and homeownership. For more on how Illinois and other states fared, visit www.cfed.org/go/scorecard.

CFED and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago cosponsored the forum, which had presentations by Harry Pestine and Robin Newberger of the Consumer and Community Affairs Department of the Chicago Fed and by Jennifer Brooks, the CFED policy director.

A week later IABG briefed state legislators in Springfield on the scorecard. Shriver Center and Heartland Alliance advocates discussed how to advance asset-building policies in Illinois.