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Economic Opportunities Program

About the Economic Opportunities Program

EOP employs a technique known as participatory learning that is designed to help project stakeholders – including funders, policy makers, nonprofit leaders and community representatives – engage in self-assessment, collective knowledge development and joint action. As part of the process, stakeholders help: identify research and dialogue issues, design key questions and research methods, collect and analyze data, and determine the actions to be taken based on evaluation findings.

EOP currently is working in these areas:

ACCESS TO CAPTIAL AND CREDIT
Research in this area focuses on efforts to help low-income individuals and communities gain access to mainstream financial services, including financial education and support, high-return savings products, investment opportunities and the purchase and maintenance of assets.

We also have a special interest in how "scale" can be achieved within the community development industry, as well as within other industries and organizations. To further that work, EOP and the Federal Reserve System are co-hosting a series of conferences in various cities across the country to delve deeper into the question of how to create scale and sustainability.

Our current work focuses on:

  • Scale and Sustainability
  • Financial Services
  • Credit Path®
  • Earned Income Tax Credit
  • Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)
  • Community Development Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative

Contact Kirsten Moy, EOP Director, Kirsten.moy@aspeninstitute.org for more information.

MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
FIELD, the Microenterprise Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination, was created in 1998 after research showed that, despite growth in the U.S. microenterprise industry, there was a clear need to improve practice and overcome key challenges including expanding efforts to reach more low-income entrepreneurs. FIELD’s mission now, as then, is: to identify, develop and disseminate best practices in the microenterprise field, and to educate funders, policy makers and others about microenterprise as an anti-poverty strategy.

FIELD grew out of the Aspen-based Self-Employment Learning Project (SELP), a multiyear evaluation program focused on microenterprise development programs and their clients. Over time, FIELD has spearheaded the development of key pieces of infrastructure to support the scaling up of the industry, including:

MicroTest, a performance measurement system that has contributed to the establishment of industry standards and is now the largest database on performance and client outcomes.

MicroMentor, an Internet-based service that links entrepreneurs to experienced business experts in mentoring relationships. Operation of MicroMentor transferred on October 1, 2006, to Mercy Corps, the international humanitarian relief and development agency. MicroMentor has its own Web site: www.micromentor.org.

FIELD’s Web site details our many other projects.

Contact Elaine Edgcomb, FIELD Director, elaine.edgcomb@aspeninstitute.org for more information.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Through the Workforce Strategies Initiative we evaluate and document a growing strategy among employment programs that takes an industry-specific or "sectoral" approach to developing the workforce. This approach differs from traditional employment training models in that programs seek to develop a keen understanding of business needs and community dynamics, identify a set of industry-specific job opportunities, create tailored services for their predominately low-income constituency, and more effectively prepare workers to succeed in the workplace. WSI succeeded EOP’s Sectoral Employment Development Learning Project, which helped demonstrate the potential of this approach.

Our current emphasis is on broadening use of the strategy across various institutional, geographic and industrial settings and to develop tools to support effective practice. With that in mind we recently produced a toolkit to help program leaders better capture the value of their services for employers.

WSI’s current work focuses on:

Contact Maureen Conway, WSI Director, maureen.conway@aspeninstitute.org for more information.