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Financial Stability

Why Is This Important?

Thousands of Story County families aren’t in the financial position to weather even a small storm, struggling paycheck to paycheck. The COVID-19 pandemic has been no small storm. The numbers of people looking for help with basic needs is staggering. The work to build financially stable families can range from emergency support to helping families stay in school or maintain employment to strengthening their financial literacy. The final result of this is improved financial capacity and the ability to save for future emergencies.

COMPELLING CONCERNS:

• 21.5% of Story County individuals have incomes below the federal poverty level. This represents 18,527 individuals (American Community Survey, ACS)

• 19% of Story County households experience severe housing problems, defined as households with at least 1 of 4 housing problems: overcrowding, high housing costs, lack of kitchen facilities, or lack of plumbing facilities (County Health Rankings)

• 6.9% of households in Story County receive cash public assistance income and/or food stamps/SNAP. This represents 2,577 households (ACS)

• 20.8% of Story County adults 25 years+ have a high-school diploma or less education (ACS)

• Only 22% of surveyed individuals in Iowa said they had participated in financial education through school, college, or workplace (2018, M20, FINRA National Financial Capability Study)

*Data from 2019 or most recent year available. While these indicators are not the only ways to assess financial stability in our community, these are data points that illustrate that there is a need in our goal area.

UNITED WAY’S RESPONSE: 

Emergency food and homelessness prevention: We will provide for basic needs.

Employment support: We will help individuals remain in school and/or maintain employment.

Financial education: We will provide basic personal finance education and other financial programs.

Clear Impact Suite is an easy-to-use, web-based software platform that helps your staff collaborate with external stakeholders and community partners by utilizing the combination of data collection, performance reporting, and program planning.

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