Special savings accounts can help break cycle of poverty, By Kathy M. Kristof, July 4, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Dametria Williams started her financial life as a statistic – a poor single mom, just like her mother and grandmother before her. But the San Francisco healthcare worker decided to break the cycle of poverty. Now the 38-year-old is a college graduate on the cusp of opening her own business. She is also raising a high-achieving teenager who is in position to win merit-based college scholarships. She attributes her life’s 180-degree turn to two things: a new attitude and a savings account with matching funds provided to low-income participants. ‘I used to walk through the world thinking there is never enough,’ she said. ‘There is not enough money, there is not enough food, there is not enough time. When you are in the mind-set of thinking there is not enough, you aren’t even looking for help. But when you realize that there is enough – that money is a manageable tool – you start to see what help is available to you.’ The key for Williams was a so-called Individual Development Account, which funded tutoring for her daughter and is now helping Williams save for her business…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty