21 Years of Asset Building

This past May the New America Foundation hosted the Assets@21 Symposium and Ideas Summit in Washington, DC to commemorate the 21st anniversary of Michael Sherraden’s seminal book, Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy. First published in 1991, the book challenged the prevailing approach to public assistance which focused on income maintenance and immediate consumption and as an alternative articulated a perspective which emphasized the role assets play in promoting social development. Sherraden wisely observed that “no one ever spent their way out of poverty.” The book set the stage for a new way to think about social policy and sparked interest in a wave of novel policy interventions.

Over two days, a select group of practitioners, policymakers, funders, and advocates discussed the current state of the asset building field, examined its impact on social policy efforts, and explored ways to more effectively incorporate the “assets perspective” in future policy efforts.

For those unable to attend, I’m pleased to release the proceedings from Assets@21. This report is designed to capture the essence of the discussions, and includes abstracts of papers presented, highlights of the keynote presentations, and summaries of extended discussions. Whether your work is focused on the elimination of poverty, the promotion of sustainable homeownership, the provision of valuable financial services, or the implementation of constructive policy reform, I hope you will find these proceedings useful as a source of new insight and commentary.

I would like to particularly thank the sponsors of the symposium. Major support was provided by the Ford Foundation and the Citi Foundation. Additional financial support was provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Assets Funders Network, and the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Their support was greatly appreciated.