In this month's newsletter, catch up on our last Network Meeting and work from our focus teams and VITA, explore new resources, and more.

Our most recent Financial Wellness Partnership Network Meeting included a conversation about financial wellness and eviction prevention and a presentation from the Singleton Foundation about their free financial literacy resources, including Million Stories, Venture Valley, and Slyngshot. In the first part of the meeting, we reviewed a visual map that incorporated feedback from 11 organizations about stages between economic vulnerability and being unhoused. 

Meeting participants also offered their own feedback on two questions relating to when people initiate contact and at what stage they respond best to financial wellness programs. They reported most often hearing from participants who were facing, or 1-2 months from, an eviction and that those with stable housing situations tended to do best in their programs. Interest emerged in pursuing the following topics, which we look forward to discussing further at future meetings:

1. Tenant education efforts to help people understand the eviction process earlier on and ensure language accessibility
2. Landlord communication and engagement efforts (such as Justice Movement’s Allyship in Ownership course)
3. Policy efforts to improve financial stability of especially vulnerable populations (such as the City of Tucson’s proposed Source of Income Ordinance)
4. Offering financial wellness supports to people who are vulnerable/self-sufficient or still 1-2 months before a potential eviction

Our Financial Education/Coaching group met recently to reflect on their first six months, re-examine priorities, and offer input on next steps. There was interest in using hybrid meetings to offer in-person options at least part of the time, and the group was especially interested in keeping research/best practice presentations, program overviews, and full group discussions as the primary ways to spend our meeting time.

The top three group action interests, after ranked-choice voting, were:

1. Continuing discussions of common barriers and solutions in financial education/coaching work
2. Exploring financial wellness connections to workforce and employment
3. Efforts related to cultural/language inclusivity in financial wellness curricla and programs

These priorities will be focus topics during upcoming meetings. Two other actions – holding a financial coaching training and developing a mission/vision statement – fell farther down the list but had multiple “first choice” votes. Projects in those areas will like be pursued outside of group meeting time with individuals who are especially interested.

Our Public Policy group met in early September to examine common themes and policy opportunities mentioned over the past year by all United Way Financial Wellness groups. Housing affordability has been a top priority, with many discussions centering on how to support low-income folks amid rapidly rising rents, displacement, limited affordable rental options, and limited Section 8 unit availability. Supporting efforts to help people increase savings has also been of high interest, particularly programs such as Children’s Savings Accounts and the Family Self-Sufficiency Program and proposed legislation such as the Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act (state ballot) and the Rise & Shine Act (federal). Other policy priorities noted by our groups include voter education and access, state funding for financial literacy programming, reparations for BIPOC groups who faced structural inequities, and ongoing education about historical inequities in financial, housing, and banking systems.

United Way hosted a summer filing event on August 25th, helping about 20 community members catch up on their tax filing. Many people filed for multiple years, with one taxpayer refund totaling around $9,000! In the past two years, United Way has quadrupled the number of returns filed for community members over the summer. Because most paid preparers close after tax day, our service is one of the few options available for people filing late. Our partnership with Code for America and GetYourRefund also helped many individuals recently released from incarceration access our tax services to receive missing stimulus payments and refunds.