This report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies presents findings from the second year of an initiative to assess what works to enable low-income communities of color to build assets. It highlights predisposing factors and promising practices in 10 states that received low rankings on asset building for low-income people in the 2007-2008 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard. The featured states are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas. This report not only examines asset building in these 10 states-most with sizable communities of color-but also compares these findings with those for states with high rankings on asset building for low-income people (Delaware, Hawai'i, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin). The states with high rankings on asset building-and small communities of color in general-are analyzed separately in the first year project report entitled Asset Building in Low-Income Communities of Color, Part 1: Predisposing Factors and Promising Practices in States Effective at Building Assets for Low-Income Residents (Executive Summary).

Also, see the Fact Sheet "Confronting and Closing the Wealth Gap".

This report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies presents findings from the first year of an initiative to assess what works to enable low-income communities of color build assets. The executive summary highlights predisposing factors and promising practices in ten states, highly rated in the 2007-2008 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard for asset building among low-income people. The featured states include: Delaware, Hawai'i, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. A companion report Asset Building in Low-Income Communities of Color, Part 2: State Comparisons (Executive Summary) analyzes similar factors and practices in another set of states with large percentages of people of color (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas).

Also, see the Fact Sheet "Confronting and Closing the Wealth Gap".

To provide fuller detail on disparities in child health, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies undertook an examination of how child health indicators vary by sociodemographic characteristics. Comparisons are made for the health indicators including low birthweight, health status, unmet dental care needs, ADHD/ADD diagnosis, lifetime asthma diagnosis, learning disability diagnosis, and activity limitation. The findings for Hispanic children and white children are provided in this brief.

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African American women share with other women and with African American men characteristics that shape their beneficiary status under the Social Security system, as well as their views of the retirement income program. Like other women, African American women live more years than African American men and thus receive retirement benefits from Social Security for a longer period than their male counterparts. In addition, African American women and women of other racial/ ethnic groups benefit from the progressive formula used to calculate Social Security retirement benefits, which provides lower-wage earners a higher percentage of their earnings relative to higher-wage earners. Women disproportionately benefit from the use of this formula, since they dominate the ranks of low-wage lifetime earners due to frequent employment in temporary and part-time jobs.

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll of African American Adults About Social Security and Wealth, conducted in late 2005, found that African American men and African American women also shared many views about the Social Security system. e poll, which included 850 African Americans ages 18 years and older, found that African American men and African American women alike doubt that Social Security will meet all of their financial needs during retirement. Neither group reported substantial personal savings and investments to close the anticipated retirement income gap. us, the retirement years for African Americans may not be golden, but instead may be rife with financial insecurity.

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Publication date: June 2006

Half of African Americans ages 18-25 consider themselves to be well-informed about the Social Security system. When compared to their older counterparts, however, these youngest African American adults have more correct information about the big-picture impacts of the Social Security system than about various details of the system's operations, e.g., age(s) at which one becomes eligible, how Social Security taxes are spent. Perhaps in part because of the large number of years between their current ages and the eligibility age(s) for Social Security, 18- to 25-year-old African Americans are less likely to view as major problems and more likely to view as minor problems known demographic and labor market factors that will impinge upon the system's solvency before their retirement years. These youngest adults also are more supportive than their older counterparts of selected reform proposals that could reduce the amounts that retirees receive in benefits from the Social Security system.

Perhaps most importantly, when compared to older African Americans, these youngest African American adults are simultaneously less likely to believe that Social Security will be their major source of retirement income and less likely to have begun accumulating other forms of retirement savings. ere may be good reasons for this behavior, such as indebtedness from post-secondary education. It does not bode well, however, for the financial security of members of this age cohort during retirement.

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll of African American Adults About Social Security and Wealth identified these and other findings. The poll, conducted in late 2005, surveyed 850 African Americans ages 18 and older. is fact sheet features the major findings about African Americans ages 18-25, who constitute 18 percent of the survey sample.

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Publication date: June 2006

Well-publicized and much-discussed potential insolvency of the Social Security Trust Fund concerns African Americans ages 51-64 much more than it does younger African Americans. is may be tied to the fact that many 51- to 64-year-olds have not accumulated adequate personal savings and investments and expect to rely upon Social Security as a major source of retirement income. About one-third (35 percent) of 51- to 64-year-old African Americans expect Social Security to be their major source of retirement income.

However, 51- to 64-year-olds are less likely than younger African American adults to support selected reform proposals that could ensure the future solvency of the Social Security system. For example, about one in every five 51- to 64-year-olds (18 percent) supports partially privatizing the Social Security system, compared to about one-third of 18- to 25-year-olds, 26- to 35-year-olds, and 36- to 50-year-olds. Similarly, only one-quarter (25 percent) of 51- to 64-year-olds support reducing the annual cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security benefits, compared to 48 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds and 39 percent of 26- to 35-year-olds. is lack of support perhaps stems from the fear that these reform proposals will reduce the amount of their Social Security retirement benefits and from the awareness that they have less time than younger adults to accumulate alternate savings and investments to depend on should their Social Security benefits be jeopardized.

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll of African American Adults About Social Security and Wealth identified these and other findings. The poll, conducted in late 2005, surveyed 850 African Americans ages 18 and older. is fact sheet features the major findings about African Americans ages 51-64, who constitute 22 percent of the survey sample.

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Publication date: June 2006

Income is the personal characteristic most often thought to be associated with differences in knowledge, expectations, and opinions about Social Security and wealth. For example, one would hypothesize that individuals with low incomes would be more likely than those with high incomes to (1) expect Social Security to be their major source of retirement income, (2) be less likely to own stocks or mutual fund shares, and (3) be renters rather than homeowners. Some of these hypotheses are based on income alone, but others are based on the almost axiomatic relationship between education and income i.e., that persons with more education have higher incomes than those with less education. The income-education relationship also supports further speculation, such as the hypothesis that individuals with higher incomes would be more likely than those with lower incomes to know details about Social Security (e.g., eligibility ages for receiving partial and full retirement benefits).

This fact sheet is based on the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll of African American Adults About Social Security and Wealth. Conducted in late 2005, the poll surveyed 850 African American adults ages 18 and older. With a sample that includes individuals from a range of income levels, the survey findings support the hypotheses stated above. Although 13 percent of the sample (113 respondents) did not provide their incomes, the remaining 87 percent fall with nearly equal frequency at the upper end of the distribution (13 percent have incomes of more than $90,000) and at the lower end (11 percent have incomes of $15,000 or less). Most respondents were in the middle of the distribution, with about half (47 percent) reporting incomes between $15,001 and $60,000. The income categories of $60,001 to $75,000 and $75,001 to $90,000 each account for eight percent of the sample.

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Date published: June 2006

Joint Center Senior Research Associate Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh and Research Intern Lauren Ross look at the subprime mortgage market collapse, its implications for African Americans and the corrective proposals of the two major candidates for President.

Given the recent national discourse on health care reform, Joint Center Senior Research Associate Wilhelmina Leigh and Research Assistant Anna Wheatley conducted a multi-variable analysis to identify and assess racial/ethnic differences among children on selected health outcomes, specifically, low birthweight, asthma, dental care, ADHD/ADD-LD and activity limitation and by sociodemographic characteristics of their families.

To identify promising practices in asset building for low-income people, the Joint Center analyzed data for two groups of states - those with high CFED asset-outcome rankings and those with low CFED asset-outcome rankings.