Deborah Kaplan, World Institute on Disability Executive Director
Megan O'Neil, World Institute on Disability Access to Assets Project Coordinator

The 55th Annual Conference for the Council on Foundations was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada April 24-28, 2004. The Council on Foundations is a membership organization of more than 2,000 grantmaking foundations and giving programs worldwide. Their annual conference "Leadership in Challenging Times" was an exclusive convening of some of the most influential grantmakers, CEOs, and foundation directors in the world.

"Building Assets for All" was a roundtable discussion facilitated by the World Institute on Disability's executive director Deborah Kaplan. The panel consisted of Robert Friedman, Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), Mary Jo Mullen, F.B. Heron Foundation, and Sharon Drake, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. The panel was the only issue-oriented discussion devoted to asset development. The focus of the panel centered on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the existing structure of asset building programs.

Mary Jo Mullen noted that in the past, the F.B. Heron Foundation had a history of making grants to disability programs, along with many other priorities. When they shifted their funding priorities to community development issues, they still wanted disability to be an area that received Heron funds. Heron prioritized making wealth creation strategies (including asset building programs) inclusive for people with disabilities. For Mullen, the connection was natural. Among people with disabilities, poverty is rampant; according to the 1995 Current Population Survey, 39.7% of working-age persons with disabilities live in poverty. Furthermore, one third (34%) of adults with disabilities live in households with total income of $15,000 or less. Therefore, programs to assist low-income populations must be inclusive to people with disabilities.

Sharon Drake, through her efforts at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, has worked extensively with the Home of Your Own program that was developed originally in New Hampshire, before expanding nationwide. Home of Your Own walks prospective home owners, who are people with developmental disabilities, through the complex process of buying a home, from the initial decision to make the purchase, through the steps for acquiring a mortgage, and finally, to life as a homeowner. It introduces a "person centered approach" to homeownership, which places people with disabilities at the center of the decision-making process on issues affecting their personal lives and living situations. The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund manages the Statewide Initiative Individual Development Account Collaborative and works in conjunction with the Home of Your Own Alliance.

Bob Friedman attended middle school with Ed Roberts, who helped found the Independent Living Movement and the World Institute on Disability. Friedman's early association with the dynamic Roberts had a decisive impact on his belief that poverty reduction programs must include people with disabilities. Roberts and Friedman began discussing the connection in the early 1980's, long before asset building programs began to take root. For Friedman, anti-poverty campaigns (including asset building measures) offer hope beyond the traditional subsistence welfare programs. He too believes that the connection between people with disabilities and programs that help individuals escape poverty are a perfect match.

The "Building Assets for All" panel provided an international forum for the discussion of the importance of advancing asset-based strategies as effective, long-term means of helping low-income people with disabilities take control over their lives. The emphasis of all panelists was to encourage foundations to recognize that poverty is a universal issue, that special stand-alone programs need not be crafted for people with disabilities. Rather, there are means of incorporating people with disabilities into existing asset building strategies and other priorities that foundations establish.

For more information about the Council on Foundations, see http://www.cof.org/

Also see:
F.B. Heron Foundation
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
Corporation for Enterprise Development

For more information on how to make your asset building program inclusive for individuals with disabilities, contact the World Institute on Disability's Access to Assets Program toll-free: 1-866-723-1201