Conference Planning Team
State coalition leaders from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio host the Midwest Asset Building Conference. State leaders will bring together representation from their respective memberships to share ideas, make peer connections, and learn from some of the leading minds in the asset building and economic justice fields.
City of Saint Paul - office of financial empowerment
At the Office of Financial Empowerment in the City of Saint Paul, we measure our city’s prosperity across generations. Decades of deliberately harmful choices, from redlining to the path of Interstate 94, have stripped wealth and opportunity from our Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and refugee communities. Today, OFE is working deliberately to help a new generation of Saint Paul residents repair those generational injustices and build equitable economic power for decades to come. OFE is on the leading edge of policies, such as college savings accounts, guaranteed income, fair housing, worker and community ownership, fines and fees justice, consumer financial protection, and appreciating asset development.
Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network
Assets are the building blocks of financial security for Hoosiers of all backgrounds and identities both now and for years to come. Asset building can mean many different things to different people, but to the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network it means financial empowerment, savings for the future, and public benefits and programs. co-governed by Prosperity Indiana and the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute and has a Steering Committee of diverse organizations that support an economy that works for all Hoosiers.
Community Economic Development Association of Michigan
CEDAM is a nonprofit trade association serving the community economic development (CED) industry in Michigan. CEDAM supports its diverse membership to create vibrant, sustainable and resilient communities. We enhance locally-driven efforts through high quality training, technical assistance, capacity building and policy advocacy.
Exodus Financial Services
Exodus Financial Services (dba Exodus Lending) works with financially excluded Minnesotans to advance economic justice through consumer lending, community organizing, and advocacy. Our vision is a financial system where everyone - particularly those who’ve been historically and systemically excluded - can access, protect, and build wealth. To meet this mission, we provide pathways out of high-interest indebtedness and pioneer upstream small dollar loans to help people break free from the abuse and entrapment of predatory lenders that prevents financial security and stability. Alongside our lending programs, our Minnesotans for Fair Lending (MFL) coalition organizes impacted community members to reclaim and leverage their power to create lasting systems change.
Ohio CDC Association
The Ohio CDC Association is a statewide membership organization that fosters vibrant neighborhoods and improve the quality of life in all communities through advocacy and capacity building of our member organizations. OCDCA envisions a community development environment that comprehensively improves life opportunities for all residents. To do this, OCDCA has identified five critical initiatives where we strive to provide support for our members. Those initiatives are: affordable housing, community economic development, food access, community engagement and financial empowerment.
Prepare + Prosper
Prepare + Prosper is a Saint Paul, MN-based nonprofit organization that works to build financial health and empowerment by providing access to quality tax and financial services, financial coaching, and low-barrier financial products. P+P reshapes the financial landscape by partnering and innovating to offer services, products, and options that build wealth – not strip it – for families working hard to build a brighter financial future. We strive to work with people, communities, and systems to break down barriers and develop solutions to real financial opportunity and success.
LISC Chicago
LISC Chicago was founded in 1980 and since has been a pioneer in the local and national community development field. We provide grants, loans, technical assistance and other resources to more than 70 partner organizations in low- and moderate-income communities across Chicago. With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families.
Prosperity Indiana
The Indiana Association for Community Economic Development d/b/a Prosperity Indiana is a statewide membership organization for the individuals and organizations strengthening Hoosier communities. Since its founding in 1986, Prosperity Indiana has grown to approximately 200 members, currently representing 900 community economic development practitioners from public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Prosperity Indiana believes in a society where all persons can live and work in an environment that provides equitable access to economic and social opportunity.