The 20K House: From Research Project to Product

A previous blogger, Diama Norris, first wrote about the 20K House Project on our blog back in 2009. The idea behind the project is the creation of affordable housing which serves as an alternative to mobile homes and expands homeownership among low-income individuals. The idea is as appealing now as it was when Diama first discussed it over 5 years ago.

Rural Studio is the program behind the 20K House project. They are an undergraduate program of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University. Rural Studio is celebrating its 20^th anniversary and has much to show for it. Over the past two decades they have provided practical experiences for students who design and build projects benefiting underserved populations in rural Alabama.

The 20K House Project itself began in 2005, and has produced 12 versions of the 20K house. Each version was given away to residents in need who reside in and around Hale County. Now efforts are underway to take what Rural Studies has learned through this hands-on research project and create a marketable product. This will

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Saving for Retirement: Anti-Poverty Measures for the Golden Years

Right now, the poverty rate for Americans age 65 or older is lower than the rest of the population, but that could change. A 2012 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) report studied poverty trends in age groups over 50 and found in 2009 about 11% of adults over the age of 65 were living in poverty. However, for Americans 85 and older the figure was almost 15%. According to the report’s author, Sudipto Banerjee.

As people age, personal savings and pension account balances deplete. The total Social Security benefit received by a family is reduced with the death of a spouse. These factors potentially lead to rising poverty at older ages. Also, as people age, their medical expenditure increases steadily.”

Americans are living longer, and it sometimes brings financial problems along with extra years. And younger generations saving for retirement may face additional complications.

Social Security income helps alleviate poverty among retired Americans, but does not eliminate it. In the past, financial experts referred to Social Security as part of a “three-legged stool.” The metaphor explains how Social Security alone will not be enough and individuals also need private savings and company contributions to make up the second and third leg of the stool.

Today we are more likely to hear financial experts talk about Social Security as a foundation, particularly because traditional pension plans are vanishing. But overall, the idea is the same; Americans need to be saving more on their own for retirement. Unfortunately, Americans are falling so far behind in retirement savings, some experts are calling it a crisis.

Saving for retirement has become complicated because

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CAP Teacher’s Article Featured in Zero to Three Journal

I often reference Zero to Three in my posts on early childhood education.  They are a wonderful resource for parents and professionals interested the health and development of infants and toddlers. Zero to Three is also one of the main sponsors behind an early learning movement called Rally4Babies, which kicked off last July with a virtual rally that can still be viewed on their website.

In January, CAP was proud to recognize Kari Alley-Melchior, a lead teacher at Sand Springs Early Childhood Center, for co-authoring an article for Zero to Three’s bi-monthly journal. The article, titled “Common Themes Impacting Quality of Early Care and Education Environments for Toddlers,” explored six themes aimed enhancing the quality of education in toddler classrooms:

(1) Developing language throughout the day;

(2) Implementing alternatives to whole-group time;

(3) Following through with behavior guidance;

(4) Scaffolding all areas of development;

(5) Using encouragement in multiple and appropriate ways; and

(6) Integrating various types of data.

The journal itself requires a subscription, but their digital only option provides substantial savings over the print edition. Zero to Three is currently offering a free look at the digital version of

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Have You Heard About Giving Tuesday?

I first heard about Giving Tuesday last year. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving and I was listening to NPR on my way to work. The next day I was posting about it on this blog, and talking to my friends about it on social media. Last year, I was a little late to the party. So this year I want to help build awareness early.

Giving Tuesday is a movement to create a National Day of Giving to kick off the holiday season. It happens the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so after shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the giving starts December 3^rd this year.

The movement was started by the 92^nd Street Y (92Y), a nonprofit community and cultural center in New York City. It has grown to include thousands of partners including the United Nations Foundation.

The idea behind Giving Tuesday is to encourage people to

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Guest Post: Innovation Through Design Thinking

This guest post was written by Monica Barczak, Director of the Innovation Lab. 

Here’s a question we don’t get to ask ourselves all that often in the not-for-profit world: “What if anything were possible?” Frankly, it probably isn’t asked very often in the for-profit world, either. But it’s a terrifically powerful question underlying a problem-solving approach called Design Thinking. And it’s one of many notes I’ve jotted down since I began the “Design Thinking for Business Innovation” class on Coursera.

As an innovative agency, CAP Tulsa is continually interested in producing better outcomes for the families we serve. We’ve gone about this in various ways: we research best practices; we work with academic experts; we survey the families and create focus groups.

Last year we worked with a leading design agency called IDEO.org, which was our first, unwitting step into the world of design thinking.  It was an eye-opening experience – fast-paced and, to tell the truth, uncomfortable. Now that I have the opportunity to learn about the steps involved in design thinking, however, I am excited about the possibilities of using it to tackle some of the complex problems we’re working on.

Here are some of the takeaways that have stood out so far:

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The Seeds of Success: Children’s Savings Accounts and College Enrollment

I’m often inspired by the innovative ideas being developed to help low-income families meet both present and future needs.  One example I recently shared highlighted community gardens that provide fresh food to low-income neighborhoods in Tulsa.  Today, I’m drawing inspiration from the economic seeds being planted through San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College (K2C) program.

Launched in 2011 by the City and County of San Francisco, K2C is the first publicly funded, universal children’s savings account program in the country.  Operated through the city’s Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), the program ensures every kindergarten student in the San Francisco Unified School District is automatically enrolled in a College Savings Account.  Accounts are seeded with $50 provided by the city-county government, with students enrolled in the National School Lunch Program receiving an additional $50.

Accounts are designed to make contributing as easy as possible by allowing relatives and extended family to deposit money by mail, online, or in person.  There is no minimum deposit amount required, so families can give what they can afford, when they can afford it.  Partnerships with local foundations, organizations and businesses also provide matching funds for promotions that encourage families to save regularly and speed the growth of account balances.

The program is still relatively new but the results so far are encouraging.  As of 2012, over

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Giving up on Black Friday, Embracing ‘Giving Tuesday’

For the first time in years, I skipped Black Friday.  I’m usually out there with the best of them, looking for discounts and enjoying the chaos.  So no disrespect to brave souls who faced the crowds this year, but I couldn’t bring myself to tackle the early morning mayhem.  There were some perks to sitting it out.  It not only felt good to sleep in, but it gave me time to examine what I really wanted to do with my money and time this holiday season.  That isn’t to say I stayed home all day.  I was out that afternoon, visiting friends and tending to the necessities of life, like getting a tire fixed.  So giving up on Black Friday was not an attempt to fend off the approach of carols and decorations, so much as it was an effort to reprioritize things. I want to take part in the Season, but on different terms this time.

Then on the way to work yesterday, on the sleepy Monday morning following a four day weekend, I heard a story that renewed my interest in post-Thanksgiving traditions.  NPR was reporting on the first ever Giving Tuesday.  More than 1,400 groups are launching an event to kick-off the holiday giving season, and it starts today. While I am usually skeptical of “new” traditions, I hope this one catches on.  Corporate marketing has given us Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and even Cyber Monday, each an attempt to boost participation and bring in revenue.  However, the shopping casts a shadow on other priorities, so reinventing how we promote and practice the holiday tradition of charity is probably long overdue.

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With IDEO.org Visit, Human-Centered Design Meets CAP

Last week, CAP was excited to welcome the IDEO.org team to Tulsa. Since the kick-off meeting last Tuesday, they have been getting to know more about CAP programs, the families we serve and the city of Tulsa in general. (Also of note: I hear our visitors have been introduced to Oklahoma BBQ, which as most of you know, is an important piece of our cultural heritage.) But most importantly, over the next several weeks, they will be analyzing the needs of CAP’s clients to help us maximize the likelihood families will take advantage of the opportunities we offer to tackle inter-generational poverty.

By taking a two-generation approach to breaking the cycle of poverty, CAP not only seeks to provide quality early childhood education but also actively engage parents and offer services that benefit  the entire family.  Through services such as Free Tax Preparation, CareerAdvance ® and the First-Time Homebuyer’s Program, CAP has already become a leader in maximizing earned income and building assets.  However, there is always more we can learn, which is where IDEO.org comes in.

IDEO.org was born out of a desire to better serve clients in the social sector. 

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Guest Post: SaveUSA: Giving Tulsans an incentive to save all year long

Karissa Coltman, SaveUSA Research Coordinator and Tax Program Operations Specialist, is our May guest blogger.

In a tough economy where so many hard working families are barely making ends meet, it might seem strange to ask “What are you saving for?”.  Yet this is exactly the question asked of and answered by 702 families this year in Tulsa who enrolled in SaveUSA.  They have been given the opportunity to have 50 cents of each dollar they saved matched in a special savings incentive research study.  This savings incentive opportunity was offered at tax time to income eligible families in four cities across the country, including Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The program which is also offered in New York City, Newark, NJ, and San Antonio, TX, just completed its second tax time enrollment period where tax payers with dependants making $50,000 or less and tax payers with no dependents making $25,000 or less were given an opportunity to set aside a portion of their refund (a minimum of $200) into a special savings account with an opportunity to receive a 50 cent deposit matching each dollar they saved at tax time, up to $500, on February 1,2013.

Community Action Project of Tulsa County is one of the research sites tracking two randomly assigned sets of participants, a program group that had the opportunity to open the matched savings account, and a regular filers group that did not.  Researchers hope to determine over a 3 to 5 year period whether there is any significant difference between the program group with an incentive to save part of their refund and the regular filers group. The study is in its second of three programmatic years, and will follow participants for a total of five years to determine long term impact of an incentive to save.

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Guest Post: What’s your strategy for building human capital?

As part of a new project at CAP, each month we will be featuring a guest blogger from across the agency.  Catheryn Mason, Director of Learning and Performance, is our seventh blogger.

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) place a great deal of emphasis on amassing, developing, and effectively utilizing financial capital within their organizations. Fundraising, donor relations and revenue generation are aspects of the business that (rightly) receive a great deal of time and attention from development personnel in addition to agency leaders and the organization’s board of directors. But what about amassing, developing, and most effectively utilizing and leveraging human capital? Remarkably, many NPOs lack any sort of vision or strategy around talent development and management – and this lack of focused commitment hampers results and outcomes.

For our purposes, let’s define talent management as follows: a comprehensive strategy that addresses recruitment, retention, learning management, leadership development, and succession planning. Understanding that the development and stewarding of our employees – our human capital – is every bit as important to an organization’s success as the development and stewarding of financial capital would mark a huge step forward for NPOs.

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