Building the Economic Security of Working Families: A 10-Year Look Back

Communities Foundation of Texas Trustees select economic security as a focus area with an aim to address the needs of working people and families living at or below the poverty line. The goal will be to help the community understand the issues and challenges facing low-income people and communities, and to convene and align nonprofit service providers around these issues.

CFT Trustees set tactics to support the economic security initiative's goals, which include: funding the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED)* to create the Assets & Opportunities Profile for Dallas; providing training and support to help nonprofit organizations build capacity to serve their clients; convening stakeholders to review the CFED data and discuss insights and opportunities to serve low-income families; and identifying best practices to bring to the local community.

CFT partners with the Thomson Family Foundation to commission CFED to produce the Assets & Opportunities Profile for Dallas. The purpose of the report will be to help the community understand wealth, poverty and opportunities to address the needs of low-income people and families across the city of Dallas, Dallas County and 12 counties in North Texas.

CFT approached KERA, the North Texas public broadcasting system, with an idea to highlight stories of North Texans facing asset poverty. As a result, CFT and KERA, along with the Allstate Foundation, The Fort Worth Foundation, Texas Women’s Foundation, Thomson Family Foundation, and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, funded One Crisis Away, a news series that followed four families living on the financial edge that included cross-platform storytelling and events. The series raised public awareness of asset poverty and humanized the issue by demonstrating that people from all walks of life and socioeconomic backgrounds deal with asset poverty. The original series aired for five months and reached 1.5 million people. 

Since then, KERA has expanded the series into a multiyear, multimedia program that has taken a deep dive into topics including the true cost of prison, how West Dallas is gentrifying, how families rebuild financially and emotionally after a devastating storm, how debt is a common problem with a harsh stigma, and more. One Crisis Away stories are seen by over 3M viewers annually and have earned several national journalism awards, including a regional Edward R. Murrow Award in 2019. 

CFT launches the Working Families Success (WFS) Network with 10 agencies from across North Texas. The WFS model integrates employment, financial coaching, and supportive services in an intentional, focused approach, and has successfully been implemented in more than 70 locations and 30 cities across the nation. Participating agencies went through an intense learning program to integrate the model within their operations, which included training for staff at all levels. There are now 16 agencies operating as WFS sites, providing essential services to families across North Texas.

CFT partners with United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and JPMorgan Global Philanthropy to help local, community-based workforce development organizations build their capacity for learning, including training on how to use data to enhance the results of those they serve. More than 20 Dallas-Fort Worth area organizations complete a national workforce benchmarking survey through the Workforce Benchmarking Network, an initiative of the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce. The survey is designed to connect best practices from more than 500 community-based workforce providers across the nation with local strategies that will deepen the capacity and increase the impact of local programs. Findings from the survey reveal that participating workforce programs were more likely than their national counterparts to offer non-workforce development programming.

CFT, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the King Foundation, and the Texas Women's Foundation support the launch of the WiNGs Coaching Institute, the first program of its kind designed to support a growing field of practice that facilitates greater financial capability and economic success. The Coaching Institute provides training and certification for nonprofits who wish to add financial coaching to their programs.

CFT partners with JPMorgan Chase to present the Collin County Economic Opportunity Assessment, an analysis aimed at catalyzing conversations about equity, access, and outcomes across the community. The report showed that Collin County is a rapidly growing community with many assets, but also one that faces many obstacles and barriers that threaten the upward mobility of many residents, including disparities by race/ethnicity, income, educational attainment, and wealth.

CFT celebrates the success of our decade-long investment in economic security initiatives!

We remain committed to continuing and expanding collaborative efforts, and to determining what’s next for this work, in alignment with our priority of advancing community equity.