“Hundreds of dollars in annual savings could potentially be created for millions of moderate- and lower-income workers today by doing nothing more than shifting them from the high-costs basic financial services that they currently rely upon to lower-cost services.”

The research brief was issued January 2008 for the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institution.

To read the full report by authors Matt Fellowes and Mia Mabanta, click here.

The American dream is founded on the belief that people who work hard and play by the rules will be able to earn a good living, raise a family in comfort and retire with dignity.

But that dream is harder to achieve for millions of Americans because they spend too much of their hard-earned money on fees to cash their paychecks or pay off high-priced loans meant to carry them over until they get paid at work.

To read the full Wall Street Journal opinion piece, click here.

“A new study by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute concludes that the state of Georgia could improve its economic prospects by doing more to educate adults who lack high school diplomas and provide more affordable access to higher education for low-income working adults.”

To read the full study, issued in January, click here.

The National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families issued a report based on the NLC’s survey in 2007 of municipal leaders to identify city initiatives to combat poverty. Nearly 100 member cities replied. Savannah is one of 13 cities highlighted in this report.

Click here to read the full report on the NLC Web site

Employees in the tourism industry often leave their jobs because they can’t find affordable quality child care downtown. Local hotels and Step Up, Savannah’s Poverty Reduction Initiative are working together to change that.

To read the full story, click here.

If someone offered a way to decrease employee absenteeism, increase productivity, decrease turnover and keep the bottom line healthy, would local business leaders buy into it?

To read the complete article, click here.

When low-income student populations are high, achievement is typically low.

But it doesn’t have to be.

To read the full story, click here.

If you’ve ever looked at a prescription from your doctor and wondered how the pharmacist would decipher that scribble, you know why the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council is making electronic prescriptions a priority.

To read this story, click here

The Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council, Inc. was one of four partnerships to received grant money from the Georgia Department of Community Health in health information exchange.  The Safety Net Planning Council serves as the Healthcare Action Team for Step Up.

To read the full release, Safety Net Planning Council Inc. receives $272,588 Health Information Exchange Grant.htm, click here.

This Southern Education Foundation research report reviews trends in the growth of low income children in the South’s public schools. The report finds that public schools in the region have enrolled a majority of low income students in each of the last three years (2004-2006) and today the South is the only region in the nation where low income students are 50 percent or more of public school enrollment.

To read the full report, click on A New Majority Report10-07-Southern Education Foundation.pdf