Dena Jo Squyres, like a typical 16 year-old girl, enjoys hanging out with her friends, shopping and playing softball. But Dena — a student at the Cherokee Nation’s Sequoyah High School in Oklahoma — can add entrepreneur, saver and spokeswoman to her list of after-school activities.

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NeighborWorks America® Training Institute

Trainings for people interested in designing, improving or expanding Individual Development Account programs are periodically available as part of NeighborWorks America® Training Institutes.

For upcoming trainings, visit the NeighborWorks America® Course Catalog page on IDAs. The IDA Course is called Designing and Implementing Individual Development Account Initiatives (ED175) and it is part of the Community Economic Development Track.

This two-day, highly participatory training will cover a wide range of topics including: 

• Designing the account to meet the needs of different target markets and market segments
• Implementing strategies that increase accountholder success during the savings period and after leaving the program
• Finding adequate funding for both program operations and account match; the training will also cover some of the ins and outs of federal IDA funding
• Promoting the IDA program and asset building more broadly to community stakeholders, political leadership, and potential partners 
• Structuring collaborations that work and benefit accountholders 
• Negotiating with financial institutions in the set up and ongoing management of the accounts 
• Linking IDAs with other asset-building strategies that create long-term and sustainable opportunities for IDA program participants 
• Delivering engaging financial education; the training will also cover selection of an appropriate curriculum 
• Using effective and best practice information to improve the design, implementation, management and potentially expansion of IDAs 
• And more.

The training will be facilitated by members of the Assets Alliance, all former community-based IDA practitioners with national IDA and asset-building experience.

Questions: Inger Giuffrida - contact@assetsalliance.org