Empowerment Economics Research, Practice, and Networks to Date (2016-present

Empowerment Economics Research, Practice, and Networks to Date (2016-present)

Empowerment Economics emerged from the financial capability and advocacy work of a Native Hawaiian community organization called Hawaiian Community Assets (HCA) and other Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community leaders. Empowerment Economics was built and relies upon a strong partnership between a team of social policy researchers led by Dr. Jessica Santos at the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at Brandeis, National CAPACD, and HCA. This partnership between research, network-building, and practice began in 2016. The following year, the first case study, Foundations for the Future: Empowerment Economics in the Native Hawaiian Context, was published, establishing the term “Empowerment Economics.” Foundations for the Future offers key insights into HCA’s culturally relevant and multigenerational financial education programming. It also illustrates how Empowerment Economics differs from traditional mainstream financial capability models in providing a more holistic, community-led framework. Following Foundations for the Future, the Root to Fruit: Empowerment Economics and Community Growth at Chicago’s HANA Center case study examined how HANA Center, a Korean-led organization working in a multi-ethnic community of Chicago, practices Empowerment Economics. The case study focuses on HANA Center’s youth programs, emphasizing how these programs practice Empowerment Economics through financial capability programming and civic engagement. Over the past four years, the Empowerment Economics research team worked closely with National CAPACD and HCA to develop a conceptual framework and core elements of Empowerment Economics and expand this collaboration to other organizations and funders. Included in that work was a landscape review of AAPI organizations’ financial capability work, a preliminary evaluation framework report, and a funder-focused brief.

After being invited to the 2019 RE:Conference held by Neighborhood Partnerships in Oregon, the research team developed relationships with local community-based organizations and funders. Together with Neighborhood Partnerships, Asset Funders Network, the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), and Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC), the Empowerment Economics team catalyzed and co-facilitated the Oregon Economic Justice Roundtable in 2020. Through this partnership, the research team connected with NAYA. Over the course of one year, NAYA and the Empowerment Economics research team co-developed the scope for a participatory case study of NAYA’s Community Development department, choosing the IDA program as the case study anchor, and examined NAYA’s approach to balance and belonging.