Have you ever heard of a money pool? Until now, we hadn’t either.
A money pool is a technique that people worldwide living in poverty (or close to it) have used for centuries to save for large expenses. Here’s the way it works: Each member of the pool contributes the same amount of cash each month. Then, they each take turns receiving the lump sum.
Francisco Cervera, a resident of Phoenix, saw the effectiveness of a money pool when funds were tight and he needed a computer for school. His mother saved for it by contributing to a money pool in San Diego that she ran (she was responsible for not only reminding people to pay, but collecting their contributions, too).
While money pools are a good idea since they provide access to savings for people who can’t use banks, Cervera thought they could be improved. So as an adult, he started eMoneyPool with his brother Luis. The online tool formalizes the money pool and provides guarantees for participants in case anyone misses a payment.
New users to eMoneyPool are limited to $100 contributions, and each savings group consists of five participants. The website verifies users’ identities, and even works to establish a credit history for them through their transactions — helping them work towards being able to use a more traditional financial institution in the future. “We are creating a bridge for our users to lending institutions, but we are doing it in a way that is comfortable and familiar to them, with money pools,” said Cervera told Pop! Tech.
“Saving money by yourself is a nice idea. But when you are living at the poverty level, everything is drawing on your cash,” said Cervera. “Money pools change the idea of saving because you are saving as a team…It changes the desire to save from a want to a need. People think, ‘Now I have to put that money away because the group is counting on me.'”
MORE:Seattle Readies ‘Financial Empowerment Centers’ for Low-Income Residents
Tag: San Diego
Can a New Approach to Treating Vets Keep Them Off the Streets for Good?
This week the Department of Veterans Affairs opened a new residential treatment center in San Diego, designed to help veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who are in danger of slipping into homelessness. The Aspire Center has rooms for 34 men and 6 women, and is unique in its focus on only veterans from these two wars. Directors of the Aspire Center hope that grouping together veterans of similar ages who’ve had similar experiences will produce better results.
The Aspire Center’s 28 staff members will offer vets therapy for PTSD, treatment for substance abuse, and occupational counseling. These types of services proved to be life-saving for Kris Warren, an Iraq Marine veteran who sought help from the VA in Los Angeles and after counseling was able to reunite with his family. Warren will be on staff as a social services assistant at The Aspire Center. “I know what it’s like to walk up those stairs, prideful, and ask for help,” he told Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times.
The VA plans to open four more such residential facilities over the next two years in Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, and West Palm Beach, Fla. They will serve veterans of all ages, but if studies prove an advantage of grouping veterans with similar experiences together, the VA may expand the San Diego approach in the future. An estimated 286 veterans in San Diego are homeless or at risk for becoming homeless, and VA officials will be watching that number and the veterans who stay at The Aspire Center closely to determine if this approach can make a difference. So will Kris Warren. “Where they go, I’ll go,” he told Perry.
MORE: We Support Our Vets. But How About the Afghans Who Helped Them?
How One City Is Stepping Up to Help Solve Our Fresh Water Worries
With parts of the country running short on fresh water, San Diego is pushing forward on a deceptively simple solution — turning ocean water into drinking water. As Aljazeera America reports, the Carlsbad desalination plant that’s currently under state-approved construction is a $1 billion project to help solve our country’s water shortage.
Parts of the Middle East and Africa already operate large desalination plants, but similar projects are getting some push-back in the states. That’s because desalinating salt water can suck up a lot of energy and hinder less-invasive conservation efforts such as recycling waste water. However, with no end in sight to California’s drought, tapping the resources of the Pacific Ocean is necessary if conditions worsen. “Without doing desalination [and] without having another source of supply, we would clearly have shortages of water,” said Sandy Kerl, deputy general manager of San Diego Water Authority.
Once construction is complete in 2016, the Carlsbad plant will have the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water per day and provide 300,000 San Diego County residents with locally controlled, fresh drinking water.
MORE: Would Your State Survive a Climate Change Catastrophe?
Someone’s Offering $10 Million to Make This Star Trek Tech a Reality
Why would anyone want to re-create technology from ’70s sci-fi TV? Well, here are a few million reasons: Qualcomm is offering a $10 million prize for the techies who can invent a modern version of a medical tool from the original Star Trek. 33 teams are competing to remake The Tricorder, Dr. McCoy’s handheld diagnostic device that could scan a patient, record data and analyze disease. Scientists from University of California San Diego scientists are among those rising to the challenge. Their OASIS project is building a device that can read blood and saliva and diagnose diseases from influenza and whooping cough to diabetes, HIV, and hepatitis. The prototype also takes vital signs, and its creators hope it will eventually be capable of connecting the information it collects with the surrounding environment. At least one thing hasn’t changed since the ’70s: the future is as exciting as ever.
What If You Could Do More Than Feed the Needy? This Food Bank Is Giving the Gift of Health
Every family deserves a healthy meal. Feeding America, which supplies nearly 23 million lbs. of food each year to hungry San Diegans, is trying to make sure they get one. Four years ago, the organization stopped accepting donations of sugary drinks and candy. Now, it’s preparing to go a step further by guaranteeing that its food bags will be 100% healthy in 2014 — less Honey Nut Cheerios, more fresh fruits and vegetables.
MORE: Chef Fixes the Food Bank by Creating Healthy Meals for Four
The move, which is funded in part by the Dennis and Pamela Mudd Charitable Foundation, is in direct response to families’ needs: for many, food donations aren’t just a stopgap anymore; they’re a long-term fix. It doesn’t help that temporary stimulus increases to food stamps and welfare assistance programs have expired in recent months. The good news is that food-bank recipients have embraced Feeding America’s initiative, consistently reporting that they’re satisfied with the healthier options. The idea that poor people only want junk food? It’s a myth.
Improving Americans’ Health Begins with These Three Numbers
San Diego County’s Director of Health and Human Services, Nick Macchione, has spent the last five years working to turn around the region’s health problems. Disappointed with the results or pre-existing programs, he responded by bringing together a unique, diverse group of experts to transform the health conditions of communities all around the county. The aggressive ten-year plan, Live Well San Diego!, is based on the 3-4-50 public health principle. 3-4-50 represents the three major behaviors (low-quality diets, physical inactivity, and smoking) that lead to four chronic diseases (cancer, heart disease and stroke, diabetes, and lung diseases), accounting for 50% of deaths worldwide. (San Diego’s rate was even higher at 57%). Live Well San Diego! is built to encourage healthy choices in the community and create policy and environmental changes in government as well. The holistic plan uses outreach to churches, businesses and schools to change the culture from within. “Sometimes simple things have great impact,” says Macchione.
How to Double the Value of Food Stamps and Get the Best Fresh Food
San Diego put a smart spin on food stamp programs. For individuals families receiving government assistance, the Farmers’ Market Fresh Fund Initiative provides incentives for making healthy choices. Participants in the program can purchase Fresh Fund tokens (using cash or benefits cards), and the incentive basically doubles the tokens, giving them double the purchasing power, as long as they’re spending them on the healthy options at that market. Participants also complete surveys and share data, giving organizers a chance to analyze how active people are and share the statistics behind the success.