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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What States Should Do: Help Struggling Families and Change the Trajectory of Our Economy
Opinion by Jennifer Brooks, CFED Policy Director, March 2009

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With the unemployment rate continuing its uptick, record increases in the foreclosure rate and losses on Wall Street, the prospects for economic security look dim to many families. The American people are looking to government – at all levels – both to help struggling families and to help change the trajectory of our economy. The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enacted in February will go a long way to do both. Now it is up to the states to make wise use of that assistance.