CFRP Luncheon & Forum
Seeding the College Dream: Results from the Child Support for College Asset-Building Initiative 

There are over 1.4 million cases in the child support system in Texas. Many of these families in the system have low levels of income and wealth and therefore have difficulties saving for their child’s education. In the growing asset-building field, new strategies are providing innovative avenues for accumulating savings and wealth including vehicles for college savings. For some families, child support contributions from the noncustodial to the custodial parent may provide the necessary infusion of resources to seed and support college savings. 

Child Support for College (CS4C) is a unique pilot program that addresses this opportunity by promoting parent savings for their child(ren)'s future college education and providing access to financial coaches. CS4C is supported by the combined efforts of RAISE (Resources, Assets, Investments, Savings, Education) Texas, local nonprofit financial coaching entities, and the Texas Office of the Attorney General - Child Support Division (OAG). Funding for the program was provided to RAISE Texas through a grant from Citi to support the opportunity for the college savings accounts and access to the local financial coaches. The Child and Family Research Partnership (CFRP) of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas is the program evaluator of the pilot year of CS4C. 

Seeding the College Dream: Results from the Child Support for College Asset-Building Initiative forum will host a panel of experts from the asset-building field and program partner organizations. The panelists will share and discuss the goals and challenges of the first year of the innovative CS4C program and how the lessons learned can contribute to future asset-building efforts.

Panelists:

Agenda:

The event will be held at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, in Sid Richardson Hall, Room 3.122 on the ground floor. Parking information is to the left. Lunch will be served from 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm, and the forum will be from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm.

There is no fee to attend, but registration is required because seating is limited. The registration deadline was Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Please contact events@childandfamilyresearch.org with questions.