asset building built for two: individuals and communities ... · • less worker turnover • more...

Asset Building Built for Two: Individuals and Communities (oh…and Businesses too!)

CFED Asset Learning Conference 2012 September 21, 2012

We are here today to…. Explore the idea of strengthening the connection

between building individual/family assets and community assets.

Hear two stories of effective efforts to do this: One focused on collective efforts of employers in a

Vermont county to help their workers One focused on building collective effort of a range of

players in an Alabama region that is helping a set of rural low-wealth business owners

Consider what it might take to get more asset builders to build asset-building for two or three

First, a little context… Does any of this sound familiar?

“How are low-income people in our town supposed to save and start acquiring assets if they don’t have jobs? Or if they don’t have jobs that pay better?”

“How are our jobs going to get better and our people stay employed when our community has no control?

“A lot of our businesses and resources are owned by outsiders who only care about how inexpensively they can buy our resources and work.

“And the local businesses we do have are only struggling to get by – serving our basic needs and the needs of the outside owners….”

First, a little context… Or how about this complaint from employers?

“We could do better if we could only find people to hire who: Had the right skills and focus Would show up for work regularly Were reliable”

All these situations have to do with how well business is doing

in your community.

And they have to do with who owns the business and how they

invest in your community.

A Short Trip to Tupelo

The farmers did better because they had a weekly income – and a modernized business with demand for their product.

Main Street did better because the farmer families started spending more there.

The region did better as a whole, and started investing in itself, growing jobs and industry.

Lessons from Tupelo

If you want your community to do better, the people earning the least have to do better. Start there.

Doing better means the businesses have to find a good market and innovate to meet demand.

Doing better also means that businesses must invest in the success of their workers – and maybe even their customers!

Quilting Asset Building for All = Better Livelihood for All

Business Does Better

Workers/Families Do Better

Community Does Detter

• Better workers

• More productivity

• Less worker turnover

• More customers inside the community

• Better customers from outside the community

• More stable job

• Fewer emergencies without a way to address them

• Reduce debt, start saving and building assets

• Chances to advance in a career

• More chances for kids

• More local ownership of business and business assets

• More stable economy

• More citizens with stable livelihood

• More spending on Main Street

• Culture of contributing and investment

Working Bridges

Lisa Falcone Working Bridges Project Director United Way of Chittenden County The Great State of Vermont

One community’s approach to job retention, advancement and financial stability

for lower-wage employees, their employers, and the community at large

Lisa Falcone, Working Bridges Project Director

Asset-Building Built for Two: Individuals and Communities CFED Assets Learning Conference / Washington, DC / 9/21/12

Copyright United Way of Chittenden County

City of Burlington Vermont’s largest city Population: 40,000

Photo by Stephen Mease

How Working Bridges happened—The Aha Moment

• United Way committed to ending poverty (2006)

• Offered Bridges out of Poverty two-hour overviews for VT employers

• Employers requested action

• Created initial employer workgroup


Employee experiences barrier(s) to work

Unable to connect with resources

Job performance declines

Absence and turnover

Our Emerging Model How Life Happens:

Before Working Bridges


How Employers Got Interested…

Employee to HR

Can you advance me $200 from next’s

week check? I really need the cash and you can just take it out of my check. Please, please,

please…

Employee to co-worker

I had to quit so I could get my 401(k) money

out. I’m in over my head.

Employee to Supervisor

Sorry I’m late again but my brother had another tough night and I overslept this morning and you

know that I live with my mother and

brother and they dump all the work on me and I don’t have a car and I’ve got child support bills that are

killing me…


Can I borrow $200? I promise to pay you back.


What is Working Bridges?

• A public / employer collaborative convened and managed by United Way of Chittenden County

• Focus: Improve financial stability and well-being of low-to-moderate wage earners through increased job retention, productivity and advancement

• Employers are the innovators and testers of key strategies


Results: The Triple Lens

• Standard practice – privacy and dignity • Accessing resources • Retaining jobs • Improving financial stability

• Low cost, highly valued employee benefit • Retaining workers, saving turnover costs • Standard practice

• Understanding poverty and its impact • Benefitting from collective response • Stronger employers • More stable family incomes, local spending


• Employees

• Employers

• Community

Scope of Working Bridges • Education about economic class in the workplace

– 600+ employers attending sessions all across state

• Chittenden County Employer Workgroup – 15 employers (for profit and nonprofit businesses) at start – Has grown to 48 +

• Key Strategies: Enhance lives of workers and their families – Resource Coordinator: Shared and paid for across employers;

resources provided to employees at the workplace – Employee Loan/Savings: 25 employers, 5 financial institutions – GED, ELL, Financial Literacy: Classes provided at the workplace – On-site Tax Preparation/EITC

• Evaluation


• Building relationships

• Confidential

• Scheduled appointments

• Proactive approach

• Actions: – Link to 211

– Advocacy

– Listening/support

– Planning

Financial

State Benefits

Housing Trans-

portation

Medical Insurance

& Bills

Other (<10)

On-Site Resource Coordinator


Focus of RC assistance

2010

Working Bridges Employee Loan Savings • Employee contacts their employer’s HR for approval to obtain

loan –Employee in “good standing” = no disciplinary action –Reason for request not asked –Length of service requirement

• HR contacts financial institution for same-day loan of up to $1,000

• Loan repaid via payroll deduction

• Once repaid, deduction remains – to build savings account

• Currently, 5 institutions and 25 organizations participating


Results: Employee Loan/Savings Program Is anyone better off? Employees are accessing $$$ they need

Employees are building credit and savings – Less than 5% of participants default

– 70% continue saving—average account $384

– 17% said improved credit

– Several employees able to get other loans

Employers are retaining workers and savings $$ through reduced turnover


Credit + Savings + Employment = Financial Stability

Headline Measures RHINO TURNOVER RATE:

% Employees w ho left voluntarily or w ere f ired (monthly rate averaged across year)

35% 37%30%

18%15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

What if turnover hadn’t gone down? 47 more jobs lost $164,500 in turnover costs*

*based on SHRM estimate of $3500 turnover cost for $8/hr employee


Headline Measures FAHC Turnover

(# terminations/average # employees each year)

51%57% 55%

40%34%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Retention PLUS Productivity for primary hospital (VT largest employer)

Unscheduled time off has decreased from 4.3% in 2006 to 1.96% in 2009


Sponsors • Jane’s Trust

• Ben & Jerry’s Foundation

• SHRM Vermont State Council

• Downs, Rachlin & Martin PLLC

• Vermont Business Roundtable

• United Way of Chittenden County

• Vermont Human Resource Association

• NE Federal Credit Union/Direct Foundation

• Vermont Department of Labor

• VocRehab VT Medicaid Infrastructure Grant

Employers Participating • United Counseling Service of Bennington, Inc.

• Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center • Rutland Regional Medical Center • Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

• Community College of Vermont • Fletcher Allen Health Care

• Country Home Products • Engelberth Construction • Green Mountain Power

• University of Vermont • Trapp Family Lodge • Middlebury College

• Copley Hospital • Rhino Foods

• Resource • NRG

United Way of Chittenden

County


Employee experiences barrier(s)

Connects with needed resources

Employee’s situation improves

Employee is retained, obtains financial stability; improved productivity for employee and managers

How Life Happens: After Working Bridges


Lessons Learned: Engaging Employers • Initial message is critical – it’s about your workforce!

• Focus needs to be on innovative business solutions — retention, improving absenteeism

• Start with a few key employers who will be the champions.

• For employers, by employers is critical

• “What’s in it for me?” is a legitimate and threshold question; self-interest will keep employers engaged.

• Participating employers can and will likely move along a continuum of community change

• ONLY IF we can get it right and engage employers can we truly build prosperous communities for everyone.


HTTP://WWW.RHINOFOODS.COM/WORKFORCE-DEVELOPMENT-PROGRAMS

Tammy’s Story


http://www.rhinofoods.com/workforce-development-programs

http://www.rhinofoods.com/workforce-development-programs

People and Forest in Alabama

Amadou Diop National Wildfire Federation The Great Southeast

Asset-Building for Individuals and Communities

People and Forest in Alabama: Building Local Ownership and National Markets for Underserved Forestland Owners in Alabama

2012 Asset learning Conference September 19 -21, 2012

Amadou Diop – Senior Manager, Forestry Program National Wildlife Federation

Southeast Regional Office - Atlanta, GA

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Outline • Geography

• Why did NWF Get Involved?

• Initial Asset-Building Drivers?

• Components of the Effort?

• Staffing and Funding?

• Outcomes and Difference Made?

• Lessons and Advice

Geographic Area: The Black Belt Region

• Part of a large impoverished region in the Southern U.S. distinguished by its population and its soil

• Although the term originally described the prairies and dark soil of central Alabama and northeast Mississippi, it has long been used to describe a broad agricultural region in the American South, characterized by a history of plantation agriculture in the nineteenth century and a high percentage of African Americans in the population, and disproportional and persistent poverty.

• The irony: Abundant timber resources in a region that is also characterized by persistent rural poverty, rural exodus, low educational attainment, poor health care, substandard housing, high level of crime, and high unemployment 31

Alabama Black Belt Counties

Southern Black Belt Region

Geographic Area: Timber Production Forestry in Alabama

• At roughly 23 million acres, Alabama has the third most timberland acreage in the U.S.

• Wood and wood products are key drivers in Alabama’s economy and represent the state’s largest manufacturing sector ($17 B)

• Forest industry is dominated by production of pulp and paper products.

• Though 82 percent of timberland acreage is owned by non-industrial private landowners, forest-related jobs make up only about 10% of Alabama's total work force

• Traditional supply chains within the wood product industry are well established. But they characteristically compete purely on price and grade rather than value (quality of forest management)

32

Forest industry in the southeastern U.S. dominates the landscape and the rural economies throughout the region

Context Points • Small and minority landowners control a significant portion of private

forestland in Southeast and in AL. It is estimated that more than 20% of the land based in Al, GA, NC & TN is in holdings of 50 acres or less, representing over 250,000 landowners. Brown 2004, Schweitzer 2000, Thompson 1998

• Expansion of the region’s forest products industry during the 1950s-60s was supposed to bring about economic development. Instead, poverty and inequality endured

• Technological changes have eliminated small-scale logging operations and undermined market access by owners of small tracts of timberland. Abt, Winter and Huggett, 2002

• Land ownership is often one of the few and most significant forms of real wealth for small and minority communities.

• Today forestry provides limited opportunities to small and minority landowners – “land rich but cash poor”

33

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Why Did NWF Get involved? • National Wildlife Federation: Founded in 1936.

• Mission: Inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future

• Largest membership-based conservation organization – Over 4 million members and supporters

• Encouraging conservation on forestland and working landscapes whether they are managed for one or multiple objectives (Timber, Wildlife, crops, livestock, recreation…)

• Deeply involved in forestry because: • Livelihood for many people • Working landscapes • Wildlife habitat and biodiversity • Natural resources and ecosystem services

Why Did NWF Get involved? • Timber production

– Historically a resource extraction economy in most of this region – In many cases, has resulted in environmental degradation and a

loss of potential wealth in many rural communities

• NWF focused on sustainable forestry / FSC certified wood

products because of: – Forestry’s importance in the local and regional economies in the

South – The number of landowners involved in timber production – Timber production’s potential to support rural livelihoods through

income generation, market access, and demand – Potential to support and strengthen the various forms of wealth,

including but not limited to natural capital

35

Why Did NWF Get involved?

• The interest in sustainable, green, and certified wood products has given rise to new market opportunities in the South

• The opportunity to: – Establish the first FSC group certificate of its kind in

Alabama and the South

– Develop a value chain around FSC wood products in the South

• Our main goal is to intentionally connect people, resources, markets, and other shared assets to improve the financial well-being of landowners.

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Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) • A international, multi-stakeholder, non-profit organization

established in 1993

• Promotes responsible forest management & environmental conservation while addressing issues such as social and political empowerment and poverty alleviation

• Developed forest management and chain of custody standards

• Market driven certification – Market pull

• Represented in more than 90 countries

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Forest Certification and FSC • Forest certification has been growing in the U.S. for

more than 10 years, and the FSC has been on the leading edge of that growth

• FSC’s growth has been based largely on market-based

initiatives; from big-box retailer purchasing policies, to a consumer-driven demand and market need for responsibly produced paper and other wood products

• The emerging “green” building industry is perhaps one

of the most significant examples of this market-based initiative due to its preference for FSC certified wood products.

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FSC Country by Country

39

0 2,000,000 4,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000

WV

WI

WA

VT

VA

TX

TN

SC

PA

OR

OH

NY

NJ

NH

NC

MS

MO

MN

MI

ME

MD

MA

LA

KY

IN

IL

ID

HI

FL

DE

CT

CA

AR

AL

2011 FSC and Dual FSC/SFI or FSC/Tree Farm Acreage

Dual FSC and SFIDual FSC and Tree FarmFSC Only

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Where do you Find FSC Products? Invitations Kids

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Magazines

Where do you Find FSC Products? Boxes Journal

42

Welcome Coffee Filters

Green Building Materials

43

FSC continues to be recognized as the only credible forest certification standard in LEED

Paper Products from other Places

Other Places in the US (CA) Imports (China)

44

Paper Products from the South

A Boise Product from Jackson, AL A Domtar Product (AR)

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Type of Wealth Addressed/Built Type of Wealth Indicator

Individual Increase skills of landowners to practice sustainable forest management and to implement BMPs

Social Strengthen landowners’ networks and build landowners’ associations around this project, create new and meaningful relationships and increase trust

Intellectual Increase knowledge about sustainable forest management and certification and increase awareness about the value chain/market and how it works

Natural Increase sustainably managed forests and certified acres

Built Put in place information systems to support landowners, manage the group certificate and relevant communications and events

Financial Increase financial resources invested in forestland

Political Increase their positive reputation, and power to influence distribution of, and access to resources and policy in Alabama

46

Primary Components of the Effort 1. Build capacity, organizational leadership, and stability within small

and minority landowner groups in Alabama.

2. Establish an FSC Group Certificate and grow the base of certified forest land producers participating in a cooperative producers group that ensures a reliable supply of quality forest products.

3. Create meaningful relationships and interactions with key actors, including anchor buyers, in the state and regional certified wood products value chain that provide value to small and minority producers

Over time, we expect these interventions to not only have a demonstrable and salutary effect on various forms of assets,

but to also lay the foundation for sustainable jobs and enterprises that invest in rural areas, capture wealth locally, and

are good for the environment and people. 47

Owning and Controlling • FSC Group Certificate is primarily designed to allow

small and minority landowners access to FSC certification.

• Group certificate models provide low-cost certification services to small and minority landowners, and have made the process of becoming FSC certified as simple as possible.

• Diverse partnerships are built into our initiative process to facilitate engagement and fair-share in terms of the benefits.

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How do you staff and Fund the project?

• The Glue: NWF – principal intermediary

• Key partnerships within the landowners community: ATFA, LRLEAN, TUCCA…

• Other players in the timber industry and market: Boise Cascade, Inc. / Farley Forest Products Inc.

• Ford Foundation Rural Livelihood and Wealth Creation Initiative – www.creatingruralwealth.org

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Evolving Network Map

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Why should Landowners/landowners Groups Care about FSC?

• Pulp production important in Alabama

• Without FSC-certified land, we will lose demand for Alabama pulp and paper

• With FSC certification landowners can secure a market share and get a premium price

• Better access timber markets

• Enhance several forms of wealth and assets ( natural, social, financial, intellectual, and political)

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Why is it important to Boise?

• Currently imports FSC Certified pulp from South and Central America for their mill in Jackson, Alabama

• Their customers have increasing demand for FSC paper products – e.g., Office Max

• Lose customers and market share

• Lose one “small” paper machine

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Losing a Paper Machine

• 420,000 tons of wood annually not being harvested – 8.5 Loggers not needed – 21,000 acres that will not be harvested/thinned annually

• All Wood Prices reduced – Impact on landowners’ revenue

• Job Loss (150) – impact on livelihoods and local economy

53

Outcomes and Difference Made • Two years into this venture, over 63,000 acres are FSC-certified

under our group certificate – (natural asset)

• Established strong relationships with two major timber buyers in our region (social asset)

• To date, over to 45,000 tons of FSC certified wood has been harvested

• Better access to markets

• Average premium 10 to 30% depending on the product class

• Stakeholders’ investment in the value chain through grants, in-kind support and technical assistance) (individual and intellectual assets

• 300 jobs saved (paper mill) and 8.5 loggers are still in business

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Lessons and Advice • Self interest needs to be put forward

• Every participant has to have a clear stake in the process and needs to understand how other participants can help him “address his pain”

• Takes time, a lot of work, and progress is slow

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Thank You

Questions?

asset building built for two: individuals and communities ... · • less worker turnover • more...

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