CS 340 / SW 672

Building Financial Assets and Capability for Vulnerable Families

Goals:

Understand that factors that impact individual financial security
Learn about strategies for managing cash flow, credit and debt, savings
Understand the potential for private market financial services solutions for underserved populations
Learn how public programs support economic stability
Learn how to assess and prevent household financial problems in direct practice
Apply your skills to develop tools and resources to support local programs or providers

Resources:

This course is designed in Canvas. All assignments and projects will be managed on online. This course emphasizes applied learning, especially written and oral communication skills in a professional context. Most classes we will be using case studies based on four families described in the text. We will also use some outside materials-mostly online and embedded into class session pages.

We will have one book-- Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households: Theory and Practice by Margaret Sherraden, Julie Birkenmaier, and J. Michael Collins.

Course time: Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00PM - 5:15PM

Location: Zoom

Client Project Instructions

Group Agreements: our commitment to ourselves and to each other.

Semester At A Glance - Assignment Overview

Topics/Sessions:

1/25 Course Intro	1/27 Financial Capability	2/1 Financial Portrait	2/3 Client Project and Design
2/8 History	2/10 Products	2/15 Balance Sheets	2/17 Income
2/22 Taxes	2/24 Spending	3/1 Emergency Savings	3/3 Long Term Savings
3/8 Credit	3/10 Practice	3/15 MVP Development	3/17 Debt and Bankruptcy
3/22 ID Theft	3/24 Higher Education	3/29 Housing	3/31 Retirement
4/5 Managing Shocks	4/7 Life Course	4/12 Insurance	4/13 Estates
4/19 Careers	4/21 Group Project Work Day (No Class)	4/26 Client Presentations	4/28 Client Presentations & Course Evaluations

Due 5/5:

Final Project Submission

Group Member Evaluation

What to Expect

You should expect the work load for this class to require 5-6 hours of attention weekly (on average). Course content is presented in the order above. The topics for each session are above, with links to the materials for that session. Each class's content will be linked by the day of that lecture. The graded content is structured to have higher frequency, lower stakes assignments (rather than fewer assignments that are higher stakes). Students will also spend the semester working on a group project for a community - based client. Working with clients on projects will involve web meetings, calls and other methods of communications as needed.

Assignments include...

Assigned readings for each session
In class tasks or activities
Online weekly quizzes
Individual applied projects
Peer Reviews for other students
Client Sponsored Projects (including group work)

Instructor

Steph Harrill Kyle

harrill@wisc.edu

608-999-0542

Office Hours: By appointment

Erin Bykowski

bykowski2@wisc.edu

608-720-8123

Office Hours: By appointment

Questions? Post any general course or assignment questions online: Course Questions or Other Issues