Start2Save: Helping Working Families Meet Unexpected Expenses and Opportunities

The case for asset building as an approach to poverty alleviation dates back more than 20 years, to Michael Sherraden’s Assets and the Poor (1991). As CFED (2013) and numerous others have recognized, Assets and the Poor demanded a sharper focus on the causes of poverty, as well as potential strategies to alleviate it, and made the case for the importance of household assets, including savings, in the achievement of financial stability and economic progress. Emergency savings are just one component of the asset base needed to support financial stability, but they can serve as the foundation for further asset building. Start2Save, a matched emergenc savings program, is designed to help families develop this important foundation.1 The program has the potential to provide low-income families with an opportunity to gain financial preparedness skills while building and maintaining emergency savings, empowering them to create their own safety net.