Service Design Studio Programs Products Special Initiatives

Asset Development

To ensure low-income New Yorkers can make the most of their financial resources and build up assets to help them plan for long term success and weather short term challenges, NYC Opportunity has developed a number of innovative programs.

NYC Opportunity established the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) in 2006 as the first municipal office in the nation designed to educate, empower, and protect City residents with low incomes. Together, NYC Opportunity and OFE have spearheaded a range of programs to provide financial counseling, deliver tax credits, reduce debt, and increase savings. One asset development initiative is the Save for College program, a scholarship initiative that today serves all NYC public school students beginning in kindergarten. NYC Opportunity has also supported multiple cash transfer demonstration projects serving priority populations, including new parents, unhoused youth, and single working adults.

Programs

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Current Portfolio

Save for College

The NYC Kids Rise Save for College program provides families with automatic college savings account enrollment, with seed funding from the City. This project is in partnership with NYC Public Schools, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the Mayor's Office for Equity and Racial Justice. Starting in kindergarten, every student attending NYC public and participating charter schools receives an NYC Scholarship Account (529 plan) with a $100 initial deposit. Families can earn additional dollars in rewards by activating and contributing to accounts, and community partners can contribute to groups of NYC Scholarship Accounts to increase the savings in each child's account.

To learn more, visit the Save for College website.

Trust Youth Initiative

Managed by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and implemented in collaboration with local partners, the Trust Youth Initiative is a longitudinal impact study to gauge the efficacy of cash transfers and optional supportive services on long-term outcomes for NYC youth experiencing homelessness. The study will examine outcomes on housing and other indicators of well-being for youth receiving regular, unconditional cash stipends and optional supportive services, and compare them with a group that received services as usual over the same period.

To learn more, visit the Chapin Hall website.

Select Past Projects

The following list highlights a selection of projects previously supported by NYC Opportunity, some of which continue independently without our funding or oversight.

Baby's First Years

Baby's First Years is the first rigorous study in the United States to assess the impact of poverty reduction on infants' and toddlers' cognitive, emotional, and brain development. By studying the impact of monthly, unconditional cash allowances to low-income mothers and their children in the first four years of a child's life, the data from this study will help identify whether reducing poverty can affect early childhood development and the family processes that support child development. Quantitative data is being collected just after birth and when children reach 12, 24, 36, and 48 months of age.
For more information and research findings to date, visit the Baby's First Years website.

Child Care Tax Credit

The Child Care Tax Credit provides eligible low-income families with a refundable tax credit to help pay for childcare expenses. When combined with the Federal and State childcare tax credits, a New York City family can receive over $6,000 yearly to help offset the cost of childcare. At the time of its creation, New York City was one of the only two cities nationwide offering this local credit.
Child Care Tax Credit Reports

DCA/CEO/EITC NYC Coalition Report, 2007

To learn more about the Child Care Tax Credit, visit the Department of Consumer Affairs website.

Designing for Financial Empowerment (DFE)

Designing for Financial Empowerment was a cross-sector initiative exploring how human-centered design can be used to make public financial empowerment services more effective and accessible. Projects brought together citizens, experts, community-based organizations, and government partners to build better services for tax-time assistance, financial counseling, and financial literacy education for immigrants. This program is currently inactive.

To learn more, visit the DFE website.

Family Rewards

Family Rewards offered cash rewards to over 1,200 low-income families in New York City and Memphis for eight activities related to high school students' academic achievement and effort, families' preventive health care efforts, and parents' work and training. A network of community organizations and partners supported families' efforts to earn by providing information, referrals, and advisement. The program's goal was to change behavior and habits, helping families earn income over the short term and reducing intergenerational poverty in the long term. This program is currently inactive.

Family Rewards Evaluation Reports

NYC Office of Financial Empowerment

One of NYC Opportunity's first programs, the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) is the nation's first municipal office whose central mission is to educate, empower, and protect City residents with low to moderate incomes, enabling them to build assets and make the most of their financial resources.

To learn more, visit the OFE website.

Paycheck Plus

Paycheck Plus was a demonstration project testing a simulated, expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) of up to $2,000 for low-income single (unmarried) workers without dependent children in their tax household through a randomized control trial. This program is currently inactive.

Paycheck Plus Evaluation Reports

SaveUSA

SaveUSA was a tax-time savings program operated at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites that offered eligible individuals a 50 percent match if they deposited a portion of their tax refund into a savings account and maintained the initial deposit for approximately one year. To participate in the program, eligible tax filers opened a specially designated SaveUSA account, with a minimum of $200 in the account. If they left this initial deposit untouched for approximately one year, they received a 50 percent match (up to $500). This program is currently inactive.