OKPOLICY.ORG
Assets mean economic security. Yet impoverished families frequently lack the means to build assets. Some are even sanctioned by public assistance programs from accumulating the wealth they need to escape poverty. Oklahoma earned a “C” grade from the Corporation for Enterprise Development in a national report ranking states on opportunities for wealth creation and protection, particularly for low-income residents. That same report says 23 percent of Oklahoma households are asset poor, lacking sufficient net worth to subsist at the poverty level for three months if their income was disrupted.
The next lecture in the Practice and Policy Lecture Series, sponsored in part by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS), will focus on these issues and on the power of asset-building as an anti-poverty strategy. The lectures, “Benchmarking Asset Development in Fighting Poverty,” will be held Thursday, January 12th from Noon to 1 p.m. in the Chesapeake Room of the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City. Attendees will hear from Dr. David Blatt, Director of Oklahoma Policy Institute and Steven Shepelwich, Senior Community Development Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Dr. Blatt helped found OK Policy and became the Director in 2010. He was recognized as one of the state’s leading experts on fiscal policy and is one of the Tulsa World’s five “Oklahomans to Watch” in 2011. Steven Shepelwich leads Branch efforts to promote economic development and fair and impartial access to financial services in Oklahoma’s low- to moderate-income communities. Both Steven and David were in involved in founding Oklahoma Assets, an organization that advocates for policies and programs that can help create a more inclusive economy.
Click here for more information about the event and featured speakers.
