Over the past 15 years, recognition has grown among practitioners and policymakers of the potential value of offering integrated financial services—with programs focused on creating connections between financial capability and workforce programming, such as employment and training (E&T).

Financial capability programs seek to help individuals build the capacity to manage financial resources effectively, such as by enhancing their knowledge of financial concepts, supporting their skills to make financial decisions, or providing access to financial services. In recent years, practitioners have increasingly looked to identify opportunities to integrate such financial capability programming with E&T services as a way to support economic security for adults with low and moderate incomes.

This body of research, led by MEF Associates and the Urban Institute and supported by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), builds evidence for policymakers and practitioners about the extent, forms, and practices of incorporating financial capability interventions in E&T programs serving low-income adult populations as well as future research opportunities to evaluate and scale these efforts.