Examining the Role of Emergency Savings for Family Financial Security

About this grant

This project, conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will support staff’s exploration and framing of emergency savings strategies as part of the Pathways Out of Poverty program’s strategic planning process. The first project deliverable will be a framing paper that will articulate the rationale for emergency savings and describe the opportunities and challenges associated with emergency savings initiatives. Second, the grantee will commission up to 12 white papers, each exploring an approach (or model) that could potentially facilitate emergency savings among low- and moderate-income households. The resulting set of papers will be presented for critical assessment by asset-building leaders at a symposium planned for November/December 2012. Finally, the grantee will publish the framing paper, white papers, and symposium report/conclusions in an edited volume that will be disseminated to policymakers, researchers, and other asset-building stakeholders. The volume will also be made available online.