On Tuesday, September 21, 2010, Lisa Mensah, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS) spoke at the Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship and Downpayment (SEED) Initiative’s Media and Policy Briefing at the National Press Club. Moderated by Robert Friedman, Board Chair at CFED, the event’s other panelists included Michael Sherraden, Founder and Director of Washington University in St. Louis’ Center for Social Development; Jose Cisneros, Treasurer of the City of San Francisco, California; and Ray Boshara, Vice President and Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.
The briefing had the dual purpose of releasing key lessons from the SEED Initiative, the largest, comprehensive study on Child Development Accounts, and of gaining momentum for bipartisan child account proposals on Capitol Hill. The briefing also featured Joshua, a tenth grader from Philadelphia who participated in the SEED Initiative and shared how his experiences not only taught him about savings accounts and how to save more, but also positively influenced his actions to save.
