Neighborhood Partnerships

Neighborhood Partnerships continued the Advocacy College in December with a visit from a nationally renowned expert on messaging and framing.  Dr. Frank Gilliam, Dean of UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, came to Portland earlier this month for a whirlwind of speaking engagements about effectively framing and messaging policy advancements for greater racial and cultural equity.    Dr. Gilliam addressed over a hundred local leaders from higher education, communities of color, philanthropy, government and non-profits in a packed two day visit, which included a session of the Advocacy College.

During his presentation, Dr. Gilliam spelled out the challenges of framing and messaging about racial equity.  He documented responses to various “popular” frames and helped audiences understand that instead of advancing support for equity, they in fact, do the opposite.

In addition to conducting research to determine which frames do not work well, Dr. Gilliam’s research also attempted to document effective ways to discuss racial disparities and racism.  Dr. Gilliam believes that how you talk about race and especially in what order matters very much.     For those who are interested in garnering more public support for policies that result in racial and cultural equality in health, education, criminal justice, early childhood and a host of other social and economic issues, take a look at Dr. Gilliam’s findings at the FrameWorks Institute: “The Illogic of Literalness:  Narrative Lessons in the Presentation of Race Policies” or “The Architecture of a New Racial Discourse”.

Neighborhood Partnerships was very grateful to Dr. Gilliam for his time and expertise.  We are looking forward to continue to discuss this issue during the Advocacy College. Stay tuned for more news about the Advocacy College in the future!

Neighborhood Partnerships staff is in Washington DC attending the CFED Assets Learning Conference.  We were also fortunate to attend a pre-conference session for State & Local Assets Coalitions.  This pre-conference session was attended by 43 state asset coalitions and over 30 local asset coalitions.  Both on days one and two, attendees were challenged to help CFED build a movement in this country to expand economic opportunities for all Americans.

At the end of day one, attendees were asked to respond about how we view asset building as part of a larger social movement, its strengths and weaknesses, and what we need from partners, national organizations, researchers and funders in the coming years to create opportunity for all Americans.

The discussion continued on day two, with a panel discussion on the role of government, state coalitions, foundations and national intermediaries in the asset building movement.  Robert Friedman, Founder and Chair of CFED presented state and local asset coalition partners with three opportunities he sees on the horizon:

1. This is a federal moment for the asset building movement.  The financial crisis has presented an opportunity where more than ever before, Americans are interested in saving and our leaders are interested in encouraging saving and investing.  Legislation to expand the savers credit to fifty million low income families (sponsored by our own Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Oregon District 3) is within our reach as are other asset building proposals. We need to take advantage of this opportunity.
2. The money we spend on asset building at the federal level is upside down—each year the federal government spends nearly $400 billion every year on asset building activity through tax benefits and credits—but most of it is for the wealthiest Americans.  CFED’s recently released report Upside Down highlights the opportunity to simply reprioritize a small portion of this asset building budget which could significantly and positively impact very-low , low and moderate income Americans.
3. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, the asset building agenda addresses the major problems this country is currently facing.  Asset building can create long term economic stability, access to opportunity and a true and stable middle class, and we can expand the pie in an “old fashioned” American way—though enterprise, saving and investment.

Most importantly, Mr. Friedman talked to the group about how this work is work that should appeal to all Americans. It expands opportunity for all Americans.  It develops businesses and promotes entrepreneurship.  It promotes the American Dream.   We have a history in this country of intentionally implementing policies that have helped over time to create a middle class, including the GI Bill, and the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction.  While these policies historically have not been open to all Americans—especially people of color—we can now implement intentional policies that positively impact everyone.   Mr. Friedman is right—this is the moment for the asset building movement. It’s time to create economic opportunity for all Americans.

Neighborhood Partnerships celebrated their 20th anniversary and launched the Leadership Salon and Leaders Advocacy and Messaging College in a whirlwind of well attended events in mid-September.

Special guests Patrick Bresette and Larry Wallack headlined many of the events with key partners from across the state.   Bresette and Wallack are experts in framing and messaging.  They are working with Neighborhood Partnerships to aid organizations and coalitions to improve communications and advance a broadly shared agenda for Oregon’s future—one where the opportunity to thrive is real for a diversity of Oregonians, there are adequately supported public systems that support pathways out of poverty and disenfranchisement, asset building is a priority and citizens are engaged together in creating our future.

Bresette, Associate Program Director of the Public Works Program at Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action and Larry Wallack, Dean of Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs for Portland State University addressed the salon and college with the basics of framing and messaging, derived from extensive research and experience.  They challenged leaders from across the state advocating on a host of issues to work together in coalitions and across issue silos to articulate the underlying values that help frame the importance of and call the public to support the common good.

The hundreds of people who attended the events came from foundations, non-profits, business and all levels of the public sector, working on a variety of issues—housing and homelessness, hunger, human services, family friendly workplace policies, immigration reform, economic and microenterprise development, equity and non-discrimination, public health, justice system reform, election reform, sustainable development and tax policy.

October is the next opportunity for the Leadership Salon and Leaders Advocacy and Messaging College to work with Bresette and Wallack, who will be delving deeper into framing and messaging and translating the concepts into practical tools to realize the vision of an Oregon we cherish.  If you are interested in learning more, please contact Janet Byrd, Executive Director of Neighborhood Partnerships.

Janet promised a special 21st anniversary celebration for Neighborhood Partnerships next year. And with hard work, we can also hope also celebrate a state that looks more like our vision of equity and opportunity for all Oregonians.

**This guest post was written by Kathy Turner.  Kathy is a consultant for Neighborhood Partnerships.

Speaking yesterday at the opening plenary of CFED’s biennial Assets Learning Conference, Thomas Shapiro and Melvin Oliver outlined four strategies for eliminating the United States’ racial wealth gap.  Shapiro and Oliver are authors of Black Wealth/White Wealth, a flagship work on wealth and inequality.  Speaking to a crowd of over 1,000 advocates and service providers from all over the United States, Shapiro and Oliver linked historical practices such as redlining and discrimination by the federal housing administration, insurance companies and financial institutions and today’s subprime lending crisis.  Shapiro and Oliver pointed out that today—in 2010—the average African American household owns 10% of the wealth of the average white American household—a chilling statistic which hasn’t changed since the 1980s.

Shapiro and Oliver called on the audience to acknowledge hard truths about the role established asset building programs, such as the home mortgage interest rate deduction, play in augmenting unfair gains perpetuated for generations.  Thomas Shapiro cited the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, which has followed African American and white families for generations to monitor changes in wealth accumulation over time.  Shapiro pointed out that the study gives us the opportunity to monitor wealth accumulation throughout the life-cycle and conclusively demonstrates that the vast majority of wealth accumulation goes to those who are well off to begin with.

Shapiro and Oliver proceeded to outline a policy framework for addressing the racial wealth gap:

Thomas Shapiro called for critically examining wealth building provision in the tax code, which costs approximately 400 billion dollars a year.  These policies include the home mortgage interest deduction and savings for retirement pensions.  More than 50% of these expenditures go to the top 5% of tax payers—those making more than $167,000 per year, while very little goes to middle or low income tax payers.

Thomas Shapiro called on CFED’s audience to question our thinking on the estate tax and how the intergenerational transfer of wealth through inheritance fits into our country’s democratic tradition. Dr. Shapiro posited that inheritance is the enemy of merit, and called on the audience to question whether we can continue to pass along huge advantages through inheritance while placing a high value on equal opportunity.

Melvin Oliver reminded us that home equity is the main source of wealth for Americans, and asked conference attendees to consider the ways in which residential segregation impacts wealth. He pointed out that high rates of home ownership correlate with stable communities, civic participation, education attainment, and reduced criminal activity, and noted that African Americans do not get the same equity gains from home ownership as whites because of racial segregation and the systematic undervaluing of black neighborhoods.  This systematic undervaluation as a result of segregation is essentially an equity tax.  Dr. Oliver also called on community development institutions to purchase and renovate foreclosed homes, and called on us all to consider asset building opportunities for renters.

Finally, Melvin Oliver called on us to think about how Children’s Development Accounts can help to close the racial wealth gap. He recommended that public deposits made for each young person be greater  for lower-income families in order to make real strides to reducing the racial wealth gap over time.

Melvin Oliver concluded this powerful presentation by calling on the audience to recognize that, in order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. Shapiro and Oliver’s presentation was an important reminder about the urgency of asset policy reform coupled with culturally sensitive service delivery.  Stay tuned for more highlights from CFED’s biennial conference.

Recently released data shows that the total number of people in poverty grew to one in seven Americans in 2009.  This heart wrenching economic news tells the story of hardship many of us know well since nearly everyone has watched family members and friends struggle through prolonged periods of unemployment or underemployment since the start of the great recession.

With this news in the background, advocates from several of Oregon’s nonprofit leaders—including Neighborhood Partnerships, CASA of Oregon, the Native American Youth and Family Center, Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon, Umpqua CDC, the Partnership to End Poverty, and Mercy Corps NW—will travel to Washington DC next week to attend CFED’s biennial conference on asset building.

This year’s conference is called The Assets Movement at Its Moment: Creating the Save & Invest Economy. The conference organizers recognize that the economic hardship our country is currently experiencing presents those of us advocating for long term economic justice through policy change with an opportunity. All across the nation, families are reprioritizing the importance of saving. Neighborhoods are uniting to support local businesses. And community leaders from all walks of life are reimagining the role of government in ensuring we have a stable and sound economy that truly provides opportunity for everyone. This is, in fact, a moment.

The Assets Movement at Its Moment conference will be grounded in 30 years of innovative asset-building work by CFED and community practitioners worldwide—work that has helped thousands gain economic security including over 1,500 Oregonians who have increased their financial stability through the Oregon Individual Development Account Initiative.  The financial strategies, products, services and programs piloted over the last 30 years are now poised for expansion as core components in economic restructuring.  Now is the time for far more people to take part and prosper in the economic mainstream through strategic and innovative policy change.

The Assets Learning Conference will bring together more than 1,000 insightful and influential community practitioners, government officials, policymakers, researchers, business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs seeking to lay a new foundation for economic recovery and expansion—an expansion that works for all of us.  In addition, the conference will be a chance for Oregon’s leaders in asset building to learn new strategies and practices from our peers, and to step back from our day-to-day work and think broadly about policy goals for the antipoverty and asset building movements.  It will be an opportunity for critical reflection at this moment of great uncertainty and change.

We invite you to join Neighborhood Partnerships as we report on the conference as it unfolds.  We will be blogging from the conference including a report out on CFED’s State of the Movement address.  Stay tuned to our Facebook page for reactions from the Oregon delegation, and their reflections on the conference and hopes for the future of the asset building movement. We look forward to sharing this momentous experience with all of you.

In less than two weeks, staff from Neighborhood Partnerships will travel to Washington, DC for the Assets Learning Conference hosted by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED). CFED, one of our partner organizations, is dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for all Americans for over 30 years. The conference, The Assets Movement at its Moment: Creating the Save & Invest Economy, will convene over 1,000 leaders from the Assets & Opportunity field in Washington, DC, September 22–24. Find out more information about the conference here.

While at the conference, we will attend a session on Predatory Lending. According to CFED, this session “will address the policies at the local, state and federal levels that address predatory consumer lending—including payday loans, rent-to-own arrangements, predatory auto loans and refund anticipation loans.” These are all interesting and relevant topics to our work here in Oregon, in particular the pieces about refund anticipation loans.

In 2011, Our Oregon will begin working to curb the abuse of refund anticipation loans through legislative action, and Neighborhood Partnerships has recently signed on as a supporter of this effort.

Refund Anticipation Loans (or RALs) are short-term and high-cost loans for people expecting tax refunds. RALs are given to consumers by banks or tax preparers, and in exchange the bank or tax preparer then charges the consumer an interest rate and fees—all for loaning them their own money. In an age of e-filing and direct deposits, consumers could get their refund—all of it—from the IRS within as little as seven days, but they aren’t told this by tax preparers. Unfortunately, RALs are all too often sold to low income people who are receiving refunds such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and can little afford the fees and interest rates charged by preparers.

Legislation proposed by Our Oregon would not eliminate Refund Anticipation Loans, or RALs. Instead, it has three key provisions:

1. Taxpayers are given upfront, easy to understand information about all of the costs associated with the transaction.
2. Prohibition of add on fees charged by tax preparers for the loans.
3. Require RAL facilitators to be registered and bonded with the Oregon Board of Tax Practitioners.

The high fees and interest rates take money directly away from the most economically vulnerable households, and diminish the impact of important anti-poverty programs like the EITC. Giving consumers appropriate and complete information is only fair.

Anti-poverty programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit do work—but we have to make sure that people can access these programs, and that their impacts aren’t diminished by products such as refund anticipation loans. Oregonians deserve a Legislature that protects them from predatory lending and makes sure they have all the information they need to make good decisions.

At the Assets Learning Conference, we’ll be interested to hear how other states are handling refund anticipation loans and other forms of predatory lending.

More about the Assets Learning Conference:

This year’s conference remains the only place where a diverse group of leaders comes together to discuss innovations, vision and strategies in assets practice, policy and research. Building on the momentum from the 2008 conference, CFED is creating a program focused on the issues you care about the most, paying particular attention to the biggest challenges facing low‐ and moderate income American individuals and families.

With five exciting plenaries and 60 Concurrent Sessions we’re excited to learn the best and most effective practices, research and innovations at the local, state, national and international level in asset building, homeownership, entrepreneurship, children’s savings and education, behavioral economics, manufactured housing, community and economic development and much more.

In addition to an impressive slate of esteemed presenters, this year’s conference will once again feature advocacy visits on Capitol Hill. It will also feature the first‐ever Innovation Marketplace, a virtual and in‐person space for conference participants to interact with innovative leaders and entrepreneurs dedicated to addressing the challenges facing low‐income Americans. Visit www.assetsconference.org today!

Neighborhood Partnerships is celebrating! We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday September 14, 2010 as we recognize our collective hard work and success!

In addition to celebrating, we’ll be marking the launch of our new effort to support key partners statewide in addressing the disconnect between what Oregon needs and what we’re doing. We are working to create an Oregon which offers its diversity of residents’ opportunities to thrive, pathways out of poverty and disenfranchisement and adequately supported public systems and structures as shared tools for these goals.  Working with all of our partners to improve communications across issue silos, we will work in the coming years to advance a broadly shared view of what it takes to build a state and communities where opportunity is real, asset building is a priority and citizens are engaged in creating the future.

Our special guest for the evening is Patrick Bresette.  Patrick is Associate Program Director of the Public Works Program at Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action.  He heads the fieldwork of the program, leading efforts to translate the research conducted at Public Works on Americans’ perceptions of government into practical applications for interested individuals, organizations, and coalitions

Patrick will share some of the Demos work on how to communicate the role that government can and should play in the lives of our communities. Demos’ work is grounded in theories of effective communications from cognitive science, cultural anthropology, linguistics and other “framing” studies.

The event will be at Northwest Natural in downtown Portland from 5:30–7:00PM.  Email us and let us know if you would like to celebrate with us!

In August 2010, NP Staff Janet Byrd and Alison McIntosh traveled to Seattle to attend the 2010 Strategies to End Poverty (STEP) Conference, sponsored by STEP and Northwest Area Foundation.  In addition to taking in a Mariner’s game, we learned a lot about coalition building, revenue coalitions, and what’s new in terms of TANF reauthorization and improving unemployment insurance.  We got to spend time with some great Oregon partners, which is sometimes hard to do with our busy schedules. And, Janet moderated a panel featuring Rey Espana of NAYA and Kalima Rose of Policy Link, on the Sustainable Communities Initiative and other system integration efforts.

Revenue Coalitions

States all across the Country are facing extreme budget shortfalls for both the current year and coming year, and Oregon is certainly no exception.  With little prospect for additional federal stimulus dollars, and no appetite for raising taxes, advocates for human services and housing are faced with fighting draconian budget cuts to services for low income families, children, disabled, and the elderly.  One strategy that worked last year in Washington State was to create a Revenue Coalition—Rebuilding our Economic Future—aimed at increasing state revenues through the closing of tax loopholes and sunsetting tax credits.  Oregon advocates will be considering similar approaches—e-mail us if you’re interested in hearing more about what’s going on.

TANF Reauthorization

Legislation which governs TANF, or welfare, is due to expire in September, 2010.  However it is unlikely that TANF will be reauthorized in 2010, and we will likely instead see a series of ‘continuing resolutions’—which just extend spending authority temporarily—for the next one to three years.  Liz Schott from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities presented on the prospects for reauthorization as well as the possibility of an extension for the Emergency Contingency Fund to increase TANF funds due to the recession.

Re-Employment Strategies

We also heard Deborah Schlick of the Affirmative Options Coalition give a great presentation about how, as a result of unequal access to unemployment benefits, TANF has essentially become unemployment insurance for thousands of low wage workers or workers in industries with high turnover such as service industries, retail, and even health care jobs.  As a group, we discussed ways to improve unemployment insurance to make it work for low-wage workers—including extending benefits to temporary workers, part-time workers, low-wage workers, and families.

Overall, it was a great conference filled with interesting presentations, information and connections. We’re looking forward to exploring some of the things we learned, and putting new information into practice here in Oregon.

On Friday, July 16, 2010, Bridges to Housing case managers, staff, and Multnomah County partners gathered to appreciate and celebrate the success of the program, now four years old.

Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, describing herself as a member of the Bridges to Housing fan club, welcomed families, case managers and those who’ve worked at the City and County to make this program a success.  Commissioner Kafoury also announced the great news that Multnomah County had committed over $400,000 to services in 2010-2011 for Bridges to Housing!

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Commissioner Nick Fish discussed the importance of the regional effort, and talked about the critical contributions made by various partners: the Housing Authority of Portland, which dedicated project-based Section 8 vouchers, making housing affordable for these families and allowing funds to be spent on case management; the City of Portland, who contributed resources to build new affordable housing units and to reprogram existing units to create 139 units dedicated specifically to this program; and Multnomah County, who committed funds for services to continue the program.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Janet Byrd of Neighborhood Partnerships described the four county effort, and the importance of the ongoing evaluation, which is being conducted by Portland State University.  Janet also talked about the private funds raised to support Bridges to Housing and thanked the many foundations who have contributed over the past four years.  She also described the huge contribution of time from Regional Steering Committee volunteers and thanked them for their efforts.

Jean DeMaster talked about the contribution and partnership shown by housing providers, and property and asset managers, and how important their support had been to making the program successful.   Suzanne Washington recognized the dedication and hard work of case managers who have been working alongside these families since day one.  The case managers have played a huge role in helping these families maintain their housing, and move forward on their goals.   She thanked them for their commitment to the program and to the families

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

We also had the opportunity to hear from some of the families who have participated in Bridges to Housing.  Several were generous enough to tell us their stories of how they came into the program, and how it’s helped them.  We heard from a family of four, who camped for a year after losing their rental apartment when it was sold.  The father is now back in school and earning a degree in green building.  We also heard from a family who escaped domestic violence and substance abuse and is now also back in school.  Commissioner Kafoury said it best when she reminded us that the families are the one and only reason this program matters.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Thanks to everyone who came, and thank you especially to the families who shared their stories and their afternoon with us.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Also special thanks to those who donated food or raffle prizes to the event: Cupcake Jones, New Seasons Market, Starbucks, World Cup Coffee, Human Solutions, and Ellington Handbags.  Thanks to Maileen Hamto of Portland Housing Bureau for taking photographs. And thanks to Hacienda CDC’s Micro Mercantes for a wonderful lunch.

Since November 2009, Neighborhood Partnerships has had the pleasure of working with Patrick Bresette of Demos. We’ve been learning about the public’s images of government and the economy, and ways to foster more collaborative attitudes among citizens.

Now, we’re working on a very exciting project with Patrick and Larry Wallack, Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University to create an Emerging Leaders Advocacy and Messaging Training.  (Larry was instrumental in helping the Housing Alliance create messages to better communicate the importance of affordable housing.)

The goal of this training, first and foremost is to support established leaders and communications professionals who are working to create an Oregon which offers its diversity of residents opportunities to thrive, pathways out of poverty and disenfranchisement and adequately supported public systems and structures as shared tools for these goals.

Second, we want to train and support an emerging cadre of leaders and communicators as they work on issues and in cross-issue coalitions to develop messages and materials that resonate and move an advocacy agenda. We will select participants who have a clear issue focus and advocacy or campaign plan, a commitment to strategic communications, and a recognition that building public support for governmental action and resources is an underlying priority.

And third, we intend to improve communications across issue silos. We will advance a broadly shared view of what it takes to build a state and communities where opportunity is real, asset building is a priority and citizens are engaged in creating the future. By working across silos we hope to support one another’s efforts to address critical needs, and together address the underlying resource and public will challenges that hamper all of our success.

This training will be based in large part on the research done by Demos on how to communicate the role that government can and should play in the lives of our communities. Demos’ work is grounded in theories of effective communications from cognitive science, cultural anthropology, linguistics and other “framing” studies. Key elements of this theory and practice will shape the training curriculum.

The trainings will be conducted primarily by Patrick Bresette of Demos and Larry Wallack, Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University. Other trainers and speakers will be announced in September.  Applicants must commit to attend all sessions of the training, to be held once per month into the spring of 2011.

Interested in applying to attend the trainings? E-mail us today!  Applications are due August 15, 2010.

Interested in more Demos research? Check out a recent publication from Demos: “Government, The Economy, and We, The People: Creating Public Will to Shape an Economy that Works for All.“