What do Wauwatosa, WI and Waltham, MA have in common? A new online data visualization instrument from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Community Development and Policy Studies division sheds light on common trends within groups of peer cities, sometimes revealing unexpected connections. This blog demonstrates how the Peer City Identification Tool (PCIT) can help municipaliti... Read More

In an effort to focus consumer attention on the importance of managing personal finances, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago coordinates Money Smart Week (MSW) during Financial Literacy Month every year in April. During Money Smart Week, April 22 through 29, the Federal Reserve brings together a wide range of organizations - government agencies, financial institutions, libraries, schools... Read More

The Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and New York recently released, in partnership with The Funders' Network, a whitepaper presenting findings from a four-city study tour of older, legacy cities. This blog is the first in an occasional series stemming from that report. Future installments will reflect the views of some of the place-based funders that collabora... Read More

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors (the Board) announced on April 4, 2017, that it is accepting applications1 from individuals who wish to be considered for membership on the Community Advisory Council (CAC). Community Development and Policies Studies (CDPS) - a division of the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,2 is working with the Bo... Read More

Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) works to improve the socioeconomic prospects of low- and moderate-income (LMI) people by helping to facilitate the flow of credit and financial services to their communities. This is accomplished by monitoring credit conditions within communities, but also by noting the emergence of financial products and services with the potential to remov... Read More

Workforce development, long thought to be the purview of community colleges and other vocational programs increasingly extends into early childhood education and elementary school. In fact, many practitioners today believe that workforce development and early childhood education go hand in hand, with many of the skills that bode well for career success developed early in life1. Given tha... Read More

Bank branches are an integral component of the financial infrastructure of a community. In low-and moderate-income communities, the presence of a bank branch might be one of only a few mainstream financial resources available to residents. Therefore, the impact of the closing of a bank branch must be carefully considered. This brief essay explores the regulatory requirements of cl... Read More

Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) continues to be engaged in the System-wide Healthy Communities Initiative which explores the shared interests and goals of the community development and public health fields, with particular focus on the social determinants of health. Most recently, CDPS has focused on rural communities with a Healthy Communities event in Wisconsin at the end... Read More

Beginning in 2015, CDPS undertook an ambitious information gathering process as a first step in developing a five-year strategic plan. When the Fed's Board of Governors first created the community development function in 1981 shortly after passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), its core mission was to help facilitate the flow of credit and financial services to places and people... Read More

Note: Dr. William Elliott is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion at The University of Kansas. He recently participated the “Post-Secondary Education Option” panel at the “Exploring Prominent Issues in Financial Resiliency and Mobility in Low- and Moderate-Income (LMI) Communities” conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Ka... Read More