The Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED) at Delta State University in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will host the Mississippi Asset Building Symposium on March 7 from 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the State Room of the Nowell Union on the Delta State campus. This is a pivotal event for the CCED which has designated “Asset Building among Low Income Families” as its signature project for the next three years. Ray Boshara, senior advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will be the featured speaker at the symposium. Boshara will inform a diverse group of CCED stakeholders and community development practitioners on ownership strategies for the poor, strategies for building household assets, and sound anti-poverty measures for low-income communities. The overall emphasis of the symposium is strengthening the balance sheets of Mississippi families for economic growth.
Programs at the CCED advance Delta State’s public service mission to address the major development issues in its service area. CCED programs include: Developing Personal Wealth Program; Mississippi College Savings Account Initiative; Breast Education & Early-Detection Program; School-Based Asthma Management Program; America Reads-Mississippi; MDSC/AmeriCorps*Volunteers in Service to America and the Farmer’s Market.
Boshara is an internationally recognized expert on asset building and household financial stability among low-income families. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank, he was a senior fellow at the New America Foundation where he primarily worked on asset development strategies in the U.S. and internationally. Boshara founded the Asset Building Program at New America in 2002 and served as its director until 2009. He also launched and directed the Next Social Contract Initiative, the Financial Services and Education Project, the Global Assets Project, and the College Savings Initiative. He worked for the Corporation for Enterprise Development, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and Ernst & Young. Over the last 20 years, he has advised the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama Administrations, Congress, presidential candidates, and policymakers worldwide on savings and asset-development polices for low-income families.
Representatives from community development organizations, foundations, philanthropic organizations, and service providers in Mississippi who work on increasing assets among low-income families in Mississippi are encouraged to attend.
For online registration visit http://www.stlouisfed.org/community_development/events/?id=326. For more information, contact Teresa Cheeks Wilson at Teresa.Cheeks@stls.frb.org or 901-579-4101, or Paulette Meikle-Yaw, at: pmeikleyaw@deltastate.edu or 662-846-4066.
