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Innovation Marketplace

Click on any of the shapes in the interactive floor plan above to learn more about the innovators, entrepreneurs, exhibitors and sponsors that will be featured.

About

The Innovation Marketplace, hosted by innovation@cfed and sponsored by the Levi Strauss Foundation, brings together leaders at the cutting edge of social innovations that expand economic opportunity for all Americans in a virtual and in-person interactive venue.

The Innovation Marketplace at the 2010 Assets Learning Conference included

• Innovation Stations: Interactive spaces where Innovators-in-Residence, Innovative Idea Champions and Idea Engineers present their approaches to expanding economic opportunity. Innovators and other Conference participants work together to identify best practices, share burning questions and trade useful resources to advance innovative ideas.
• Innovative Entrepreneurs: Individuals with businesses that exist as a result of or with the intention of expanding economic opportunity. Entrepreneurs demonstrate and sell their products and services in front of an audience of over 1,000 creative individuals.
• Exhibitors: Partner organizations dedicated to serving those living at the margins of the mainstream American economy. Visit exhibitors’ booths to gain firsthand experience with some of the most cutting-edge ideas that expand economic opportunity.
• Sponsors: Generous organizations without whose support the Assets Learning Conference would be impossible. Support sponsors by visiting their exhibit spaces and ask them how they’re working to identify innovative concepts that confront the challenges facing low-income Americans.

Sponsors

	GOLD SPONSOR
	Levi Strauss Foundation Learn More

	PLATINUM SPONSOR
	Citi Learn More

	GOLD SPONSOR
	Wells Fargo Learn More

	GOLD SPONSOR
	NeighborWorks America Learn More

	BRONZE SPONSOR
	E-Trade Learn More

	BRONZE SPONSOR
	Credit Builders Alliance Learn More

	BRONZE SPONSOR
	Center for Financial Services Innovation Learn More

	SPECIAL SPONSOR
	Intuit Learn More

Innovation Stations

	INNOVATION STATION: Green Worker-Owned Cooperatives
	Hilary Abell
	Hilary is Executive Director of WAGES, Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security. Using her experience with cooperative models and environmental sustainability in Latin America, she will partner with green company Seventh Generation and use IDAs in a shared business ownership context to expand job and asset-building opportunities for women.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Flexible IDAs for Persons with Disabilities
	Joyce Armstrong & Nora Bishop
	Joyce is Project Director for the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Project in Connecticut. Along with Nora, she has created a program to link Social Security’s Ticket to Work program with IDAs to allow persons with disabilities to continue to work and increase their financial security.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: More in the Middle Initiative
	Diane Bell McKoy
	Diane is President and CEO of Associated Black Charities, Maryland’s leading African-American philanthropic organization. She is pioneering the “More in the Middle” initiative to close the health and wealth gaps and create a larger African-American middle class in Baltimore to serve as a renaissance model for other regions.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	INNOVATION STATION: Assets for Artists
	Blair Benjamin
	Blair Benjamin is an asset development practitioner with experience working with low-income artists. Through his website, Assets for Artists, he connects low-income artists with matched savings accounts and entrepreneurship training. Blair aims to reach Native Americans and other communities of color to boost their earning power and household assets.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: IDA Yields as College Loans
	Peter Blanchard
	Peter is Youth Development Coordinator for the REACH CDC, driving the movement to create children’s savings and asset-development programs for low-income families. He proposes incorporating a student loan repayment program into IDAs, deferring loans as long as students maintain a matched savings account that would help repay the loans.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: U.S. R-Savings Bond
	Diane Browning
	Diane Browning is the Rural Retirement Project Coordinator for the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER). She is working to promote long-term savings, especially for those who do not have access to employer-based plans, by creating a new type of U.S. Savings Bond.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Shared Resources in Native Communities
	Kyril Calsoyas
	Kyril has administered schools and community programs in the Navajo Nation for 30 years. He has successfully applied culturally-sensitive training in risk management, farm financial management, value-added food production and USDA financial products and offered IDAs to the Navajo Nation to help them operate farms and increase savings.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Quality Affordable Manufactured Housing
	Stacey Epperson
	To provide quality, affordable manufactured housing to all Americans, Stacey will work with Frontier National to distribute high-quality manufactured homes to nonprofits nationwide to serve local, low- and moderate-income families. The concept, currently being pilot-tested in a number of markets, involves training and assisting other nonprofits so their homes appreciate in value and build financial security.	Burning Questions Learn More Send an e-mail

	INNOVATION STATION: Roadmap to Financial Security for Youth with Disabilities
	Tom Foley
	Tom is Deputy Director for the World Institute on Disability. He is creating lifelong financial plans for youth with disabilities so they can invest in themselves through asset-building programs. He will be conducting sessions at the Conference for practitioners and nonprofits interested in launching a matched savings program.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: De-Mystifying the Credit Reporting Process
	Vikki Frank
	Vikki Frank is the Executive Director of the Credit Builders Alliance. With CBA’s latest initiative, ‘Credit Outcome Strategies,’ she helps nonprofits use credit report information to better understand their target population and measure long-term financial outcomes. Check out her ALC session on “Credit Building as Asset Building.”	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Opportunity Passport Program
	Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
	Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative strives to provide every foster care youth the opportunities needed for a successful transition to adulthood. The initiative is developing a program combining IDAs, personal bank accounts and local job and support opportunities to help foster care youth save for their future.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Evergreen Cooperative Initiative
	Ted Howard
	Ted is Founding Executive Director of The Democracy Collaborative. He has designed the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative to create green businesses that generate wealth through worker ownership in low-income communities. The initiative will develop a network of worker cooperatives that recruit, train and employ members of disadvantaged groups to be employee-owners.	Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Redefining 'College Material'
	Jessica Johnson
	Jessica Johnson is the founder of The Scholarship Academy (TSA). TSA uses leadership and entrepreneurship to transform youth into Scholarship Ambassadors to their peers to redefine who is considered ‘college material’ as well as offer an introduction to asset-building concepts.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Youth Financial Literacy Training
	Patricia Johnson
	Patricia is Founder of Game Theory Academy (GTA) where she helps at-risk, low-income youth to develop financial literacy. This unconventional approach to financial education offers a tie-in to entrepreneurship and matched savings. Patricia partners with community organizations to offer GTA’s curriculum to foster youth and youth offenders.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Hybrid IDA
	Edmund Khashadourian
	Ed is Program Officer for Community Investment at United Way and Founder of Opportunity to Assets. In addition to Savings Accelerator Accounts, he is developing Ramp-UP, which will allow accountholders to receive matching funds at regular intervals throughout the savings period rather than upon completion of the program.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Cooperative Public Markets
	Ramón León & John Flory
	Ramón León is founder, President and CEO of the Latino Economic Development Council of Minnesota. Along with John Flory the Director of Special Projects, he has created cooperative markets owned by small business owners from the local community to energize communities and create economic vitality and jobs.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: GoalMine
	Rimmy Malhotra
	Rimmy Malhotra is the Chief Investment Officer and General Manager for Gratio Capital. GoalMine is the first to make mutual fund investing possible for low-income Americans by removing key barriers, such as exorbitant initial investment levels. Check out Rimmy speak about “Innovations in Savings Products” at the Assets Learning Conference.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Express Refund Loan & Savings
	Eva Margolis
	Eva is Financial Services Partnership Manager with AccountAbility Minnesota (AAM), one of CFED’s SETI partners. AAM has created the Express Refund Loan & Savings program to provide a critical alternative to costly commercial refund anticipation loans for low-income Americans, including rural and Native American households, awaiting income tax refunds.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Prisoner Reentry with IDAs
	Leonard McCollum
	Leonard is helping former prisoners build a financial foundation before and beyond reentry into the community through matched saving and social reintegration training. He has been working with CFED Innovative Idea Engineer Chuck Shannon to give former prisoners the option of pooling their IDA savings to form business ownership cooperatives.	Send an e-mail

	INNOVATION STATION: Solar Energy for Native Communities
	Henry Red Cloud
	Henry Red Cloud is Founder and Sole Proprietor of Lakota Solar Enterprises. He is creating simple, money-saving renewable energy applications available to large numbers of underserved households, focusing on Native American communities. LSE has trained tribal members who have installed more than 200 new solar heating systems.	Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Matched Education Savings Account
	Maggie Reilly
	Maggie oversees the Matched Education Savings Accounts College Initiative, which uses colleges themselves as students’ portal to matched savings accounts with student rates and withdrawals timed to tuition payment dates, changing the financial aid landscape. She will discuss ways that organizations can launch matched savings programs at the ALC.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Access to Healthcare Network
	Sherri Rice
	Sherri is CEO of Access to Healthcare Network. AHN applies a shared responsibility model to offer healthcare to low-income, uninsured workers at highly discounted rates, as well as matched savings programs to cover health expenses. AHN’s approach prompted Congress to include nonprofit health insurance cooperatives across the nation.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Restaurant Opportunities Centers
	Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
	Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC) is dedicated to improving wages and working conditions for restaurant workers nationwide through a tri-pronged strategy including research and policy work, organizing for workplace justice and helping members obtain living-wage jobs. ROC is currently expanding to several cities, including Detroit, New Orleans and Washington, DC.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Medical Debt Solutions
	Mark Rukavina
	Mark Rukavina is the Director of The Access Project, a national resource center to address healthcare barriers. Working in various facets to reform the healthcare system for decades, he is now developing an approach to help people negotiate medical debt reductions. Check out his ALC session on legislation and credit!	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Banking Underbanked Hispanic-Americans
	José Quiñonez
	José is Executive Director of Mission Asset Fund, which aims to expand access to financial services, savings and investment opportunities for low-income immigrants. He used cultural practices to launch two new financial products to provide banking services to underbanked immigrants.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Project HEALTH
	Sonia Sarkar
	Sonia is Chief of Staff to the CEO for Project HEALTH, a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the link between poverty and poor health by enabling health providers to go beyond traditional medical treatments to prescribe food, housing and job training.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INNOVATION STATION: Cooperative Markets for Immigrant Entrepreneurs
	Nitza Seguí Albino
	Nitza is Chief Executive Officer of The International Migrants’ Development Fund (FIDMi), a nonprofit that aims to create wealth for migrant communities by engaging them in the formal financial system and providing culturally and linguistically competent financial literacy and community organization. Look for FIDMi's Mi Tierra program at the ALC!	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION: Handcrafted Jewelry
	Ruth DeGolia
	Ruth works for Mercado Global, a nonprofit, Fair Trade organization dedicated to fighting poverty and empowering indigenous women in Guatemala by connecting their artisan cooperatives to sales opportunities in the U.S. Look for Mercado Global’s table at the ALC and Ruth in the concurrent session on Worker Owned Cooperatives!	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION: Youth Entrepreneurship Training
	Irene Mutumba
	Irene Mutumba is the Executive Director for the Private Education Development Network in Uganda. She is pioneering the Youth Entrepreneurs Program, which incorporates social and business entrepreneurship into the educational system to create youth who will create innovative solutions to poverty.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

	INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION: Youth Social & Financial Education
	Jeroo Billimoria
	Aflatoun provides children with the building blocks of life, encouraging them to save their resources and start social and financial microenterprises. Through Social & Financial Education, children are empowered to make a positive change in their lives and in their communities and eventually break the cycle of poverty in which many find themselves.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION: Behavioral Economics & Children's Savings
	Rajiv Prabhakar
	Rajiv Prabhakar is an ESRC Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he explores if recent interest in behavioral economics can be used to increase openings and savings into the Child Trust Fund, testing product design alternatives, such as automatic enrollment and payroll deductions.	Learn More Send an e-mail Burning Questions

Entrepreneurs

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Mercado Global
	Mercado Global's sales and training programs give Guatemalan mothers the skills and support they need to escape poverty. Its Fair Trade collections demonstrate the power of partnership to change the world, one purchase at a time. Mercado Global will present handcrafted jewelry and scarves from Guatemala at the ALC.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	FIDMi-Mi Tierra
	Mi Tierra (My Land), is FIDMi's social enterprise program that engages Latino immigrants in formal financial services through partnerships with financial institutions. Mi Tierra operates an outdoor cuisine and craft market in Washington, DC, which they will bring indoors for this event!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Young Women’s Drumming Empowerment Project
	The Young Women’s Drumming Empowerment Project (YWDEP) is a safe space for teenaged women to express themselves, escape social pressures, and learn about the healing influence the arts can have in fostering a positive environment for personal development. Keep your eyes and ears open for YWDEP's performances at the ALC!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Dynaminds Publishing
	Joanne is a financial educator for Dynaminds Publishing, a “niche’” publisher focused on financial education aimed at consumers, teachers and librarians to help prepare children to handle the temptations and complexities of managing money. These publications and games will be on display and available for sale.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	IMPACTO Consulting
	The Latin American Youth Center’s consulting service, IMPACTO, promotes positive youth development by sharing LAYC’s decades of experience as a high-quality provider of comprehensive services to low-income youth. The Center offers outcome-oriented consulting services to create, evaluate, and refine youth and community programming.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Safe Streets Arts Foundation
	The Prisons Foundation, the parent organization for The Safe Streets Arts Foundation, promotes arts and education in prison to foster a sense of connectedness to society. Profits from prisoner art sales are shared with the organization for advocacy work, and a victim’s advocacy fund or charity of the prisoners’ choice.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Spotlight On Girls
	Spotlight is a New Jersey-based youth media initiative and project of the Women and Youth Leadership Alliance. It effects social change by training at-risk young women of color in media production providing a vehicle for self-expression and healing. Spotlight on Girls will provide media coverage at the ALC’s Innovation Marketplace!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Operation HOPE
	Operation HOPE, Inc. (HOPE) is a nonprofit organization that develops and implements programs to connect   urban, under-served communities with mainstream, private sector resources through public and private partnerships. HOPE’s Banking on Our Future (BOOF) program aims to offer youth financial education at no cost to school districts.	Learn More

	ENTREPRENEUR
	BUILD
	BUILD aims to provide real-world entrepreneurial experience that empowers youth from under-resourced communities to excel in education, lead in their communities, and succeed professionally. Meet some BUILD participants at the ALC!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Making a New United People
	Nine alum of Howard University established Making a New United People, Inc., a nonprofit to positively impact the lives of youth in underserved communities throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. M.A.N.U.P. stresses the principles of education, social responsibility, self-empowerment, and economic awareness to build the next generation of leaders.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore
	Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore, Inc. aims to empower low-income women and the unemployed to achieve financial stability through entrepreneurship. WEB offers intensive business training and support programs, which have increased graduates’ household incomes and created local businesses. WEB participants will feature their businesses at the ALC!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	The Urban Alliance
	Urban Alliance is the only yearlong employment program for under-resourced high school seniors in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md, preparing students for self-sufficiency through paid internships, formal employment, financial literacy training, and mentorship. The program also offers participants IDAs and direct deposit into free student checking accounts.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Takoma Artist Guild
	The Takoma Artists Guild (TAG) is an artist-supported organization of practicing and amateur artists and craftsfolk of many disciplines who meet to support and encourage each other by exhibiting and working together. Co-Chair Mara Berman will present her crafts and invites you to create jewelry with her!	Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	DECA
	DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. Visit this table to learn more about entrepreneurship programs!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless
	AACH offers homeless people more than just a roof over their heads; AACH provides a foundation to help them rebuild their lives. The mission is to move people into a permanently self-sufficient, independent life.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Cookie Wear Fashions
	Cookie Wear is a clothing line full of fun urban tees that celebrate the 70s, 80s and 90s with a twist of Hip Hop, Disco and Pop. The tees are designed by owner Michelle Smith-Maiden.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	The Pampered Rose Fine Perfume Company
	The Pampered Rose Fine Perfume Company, owned and operated by Alisani Brazil, provides sophisticated perfumes for women available in eau de parfum, eau de toilette, perfume extract, and bath & body products. The company specializes in corporate gifts, employee appreciation gifts, Bridal/ Bridal attendants' gifts, and personal care.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Ani by Mimi
	Ani by Mimi, pronounced ah-knee and meaning beautiful in Hawaiian, creates handcrafted, unique jewelry because no two women are alike. Ani by Mimi line is a reflection of every woman’s individual style and taste. Each piece is made with Love and a Dream. Wear it well!	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	Level 2 Training and Seminars
	Level 2 Training and Seminars combines over a century of real world experience in the business and personal development arena. Trainers and speakers are able to bring you real world experience that will help you and your company grow and give you the methods to implement the change to best fit your needs.	Learn More Send an e-mail

	ENTREPRENEUR
	VSA Washington DC (formerly WVSA ARTs connection)
	VSA Washington DC is a unique non-profit organization providing multiple creative environments, opportunities, and experiences for children and adults through arts-infused educational and vocational programs.	Learn More Send an e-mail

Exhibitors

	EXHIBITOR
	RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	Lummi Indian Business Council Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	New America Foundation Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	Institute for Financial Literacy Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	CFED Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	SETI Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	D2D Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	VistaShare Learn More

		EXHIBITOR
		LISC Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	National League of Cities Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	Lifewise Learn More

	EXHIBITOR
	National Community Tax Coalition Learn More