Dear Colleagues,

Thank you to each and every one of you who made the 2008 Assets Learning Conference—Advancing America’s Assets Agenda: Expanding Opportunity, Promoting Prosperity and Mobilizing Communities our biggest and best convening yet! Positive responses keep pouring in, and we can all be proud of the successes and historic accomplishments we made this year.

Nearly 1,200 people from the public, private and nonprofit sectors descended on Washington, DC for three days of important and stimulating exchange. We heard about the growth of the asset-building field at the legislative and grassroots fronts. We parleyed new ideas about extending financial services to the unbanked. And, we heard from those whose lives have been touched by the work of CFED and its many partners—accountholders, young and young adults—who’ve gone to college, bought a home, and even launched a successful business as a result of new economic opportunities we’re working so tirelessly to bring to scale.

What won’t be easily matched is our groundbreaking Capitol Hill visit. Nearly 400 attendees had more than 800 meetings with members of Congress and their staff to lobby for the passage of bills essential to the assets community. After being prepped by our capable staff, we stormed the Hill, and it was an awesome sight to see. The success visits were capped off by an evening of awarding legislators with our first-ever Assets Policy Champion Awards.

In total, we had six plenaries, more than 50 concurrent sessions and nearly two dozen roundtables. By night we danced to DC’s favorite music, Go-Go, and between sessions attendees had an opportunity to see remarkable screenings of film productions documenting work going on in the field and to visit an impressive number of exhibits.

As it was a learning conference, we open these pages for you to see the presentations, handouts and other resources from the gathering to inform your efforts to further our shared mission of promoting asset building for low- and moderate-income Americans. Keep checking back as the pages will be updated regularly, and we are already busy making sure 2010 will be even greater. This conference represented the collective efforts of some of the most talented and dedicated professionals. Thanks for sharing in this momentous occasion.

Sincerely,

Andrea Levere
CFED President