With Mapping Financial Opportunity
Researchers from the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion reconvene and reflect on key takeaways from the Mapping Financial Opportunity (MFO) project. Highlights from the team include the ability to visualize trends in access to financial opportunities on both the macro and micro level, and the potential of using MFO to gauge people's attitudes regarding the financial services available in their communities.
The following are recordings of panel sessions from "Mapping Financial Opportunity: Research, Policy, and Practice for Strengthening the Financial Health of Households and Communities." The first video features Justin King (New America), Jacob Faber (New York University), Mathieu Despard (University of Michigan), Lindsay Daniels (National Council of La Raza), Andrea Luquetta-Kern (California Reinvestment Coalition), and Jeremy Hegle (Federal Reserve of Kansas City). Panelists dive into the Mapping Financial Opportunity data and interrogate the importance of place as it relates to the location, density, and type of financial services in communities across America.
Ray Boshara (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) delivers the keynote address. He reflects on the changes, challenges, and accomplishments within the asset building field over the years, and maps the road ahead with five ideas for the future.
And finally, Shawn Spruce (First Nations Development Institute), John Thompson (Center for Financial Services Innovation), Terri Friedline (University of Kansas), David Rothstein (CFE Fund), Trese Robinson (Greater Kansas City LISC), and Amelia Reyes (Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas City) sit down to discuss the ways in which household financial security can be improved by building better on-ramps to mainstream financial services and institutions. The panel pays particular attention to ways practitioners can work with—not just for—those they seek to serve in order to achieve greater and more meaningful impact.
Dr. Terri Friedline is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. She has published extensively on the topic of financial inclusion and recently led the Mapping Financial Opportunity project (#MapFinOpp).
Mathieu Despard is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and a faculty associate with the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare and the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis. He can be contacted by email at mdespard@umich.edu or followed on Twitter @DespardMat.
