The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program has released a report that “shines a light on the central role that short-term financial stability plays in a person’s ability to reach broader financial security and upward economic mobility, a measurement of whether an individual moves up the economic ladder over one’s lifetime or across generations. Short-term financial stability means having enough of a financial cushion, broadly defined, to cope with everyday financial shocks, while still progressing towards financial goals.”
LIFT is one of nine organizations that contributed to this report as part of the Consumer Insights Collaborative, and is highlighted for our integrated focus on career and finances, our Goal Fund providing small infusions of slack to manage volatility, building social capital that supports parents’ goal progress and for our focus on parents of young children. The report frames up a need to focus on moderating financial volatility in the lives of our communities as a precursor to getting families to take off and achieve transformational progress (i.e. mobility). Too often, the importance of stabilizing our families and communities is glossed over.