Financial Stability for Persons with Disabilities: Lessons Learned from Asset Building, Part One

Building a better economic future for Americans with disabilities was a conversation we started nearly a decade ago in the basement of the National Cooperative Bank on Washington, DC’s I Street. As disability advocates, we realized that even with all of the access and change in our world, nearly 1 in 3 Americans with disabilities still lives in poverty. According to the most recent Census data, that’s double the national poverty rate and among the highest poverty levels for any underserved population in America.

 

Over brown bag lunches, we brought together disability organizations, research institutions, federal agencies and community asset building groups to answer one critical question: why are so many Americans with disabilities living in poverty and how can we change it?

 

The ideas generated from those sessions helped inform and grow National Disability Institute, the first national non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to building a better economic future for all persons with disabilities. These important conversations sowed the seeds of partnership between the disability and the asset building communities, resulting in three powerful lessons which have helped millions of Americans with disabilities take steps out of poverty toward greater economic self-sufficiency.

 

The first lesson:

 

The Power of Collaboration.  When we started this work, many of our colleagues in the disability community scoffed at the idea. Some even went so far as to refer to the goal of asset development for people with disabilities as “heresy.” How could we suggest that people on public benefits could save, work or even strive toward economic self- sufficiency? Why should a person receiving monthly income maintenance and working a few hours a week file a tax return? Or open a savings account? Wouldn’t they lose their health care or public benefits? These were important questions, but ones we were able to answer and address by ushering out siloed thinking through collaboration. Our friends in the asset building community have taught all of us in the disability community a lesson about inclusion. Success doesn’t come solely from people with disabilities talking with one another or disability non-profit groups, but rather from collaboration across diverse partnerships. 

 

This power of collaboration has proved instrumental to the success of National Disability Institute’s Real Economic Impact (REI) Tour – an eight-year movement of more than 850 organizations in 100 cities across America that have helped more than 1.5 million people with disabilities take steps out of poverty through access to financial education, asset building programs and free volunteer income tax assistance generating more than $1.3 billion in tax refunds. The REI Tour has brought together government entities such as our partners at the IRS, private sector support from businesses such as Walmart, Bank of America and AT&T, and incredible local partners from EITC coalitions, asset building groups and disability organizations across the nation working with one another to adopt and promote inclusive practices to serve individuals with disabilities. The work we have done together has expanded perceptions, attitudes and behaviors about disability, with the asset development community realizing that persons with disabilities are a huge part of the target population they are trying to serve. They understand that ‘community’ programs not inclusive of or accessible to persons with disabilities leaves out a huge portion of the community – namely 54 million persons with disabilities, 1 out of every 5 Americans. Holding to the same core truth, that people who own assets have better lives and experience more social and economic inclusion, these public and private partnerships have helped people with disabilities enter the economic mainstream.

 

We’re excited by the work we’ve done already and the lessons we’ve learned over the years. In future posts, we’re eager to share more of the lessons we’ve learned from collaborating with so many partners, in and out of the asset building field, over the past ten years.