Summit Looks at Strategy to Help People Work Their Way Out of Poverty

The University of Arkansas School of Social Work will host a three-day conference on the subject of individual development accounts, an innovative strategy to help low-income people save money to start small businesses, attend college or buy a home. The "Policy, Practice and Research Summit" will be held Wednesday, Sept. 15, to Friday, Sept. 17, at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs.

"Individual development account research has found that, when given the same support as middle- and upper-income earners, low-income earners can and do save for asset purchases," said Kameri Christy-McMullin, professor of social work at the University of Arkansas. "This summit will focus on the role these accounts can play in promoting the well-being of children, families and communities."

The summit will feature national speakers from the Ford Foundation, the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis and the Corporation for Enterprise Development in Washington, D.C. Those attending the conference will include members of agencies from Arkansas, New Mexico and Indiana that provide individual development accounts, as well as community leaders from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Southern Good Faith Fund.