Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative (ACPI)
SGFF piloted the first career pathways program in partnership with Southeast Arkansas College and the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges in the summer of 2003. The pilot represented a new model for delivering post secondary training to lower income adults. In 2005 SGFF initiated and helped lead, along with the Governor’s Office, Arkansas’s participation in a National Governors Association policy academy which eventually provided state funding to replicate career pathways programs at eleven colleges in Arkansas. ACPI is now a state-funded $12 million per year initiative of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education with 25 colleges and technical institutes participating.

The Aspiring Scholars Matching Grant Program
Based on a proposal from SGFF, the Arkansas General Assembly authorized this pilot program which provides a state match to the savings lower-income families deposit into 529 college savings accounts. These accounts can be used to pay for qualified college expenses and investment earnings are not subject to federal or state income taxes.

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)
SGFF played a major role in the creation of the state’s IDA program. IDAs are matched savings accounts for working poor families who are trying to buy their first home, make improvements to their home, pay for postsecondary education, or start their own business. SGFF successfully increased IDA funding from $550,000 a year to $1.7 million a year during the 2007 legislative session, which should enable statewide access to IDAs.

Need-based Financial Aid for Adult Students
SGFF in collaboration with several key higher education policymakers helped increase funding for the Arkansas Workforce Improvement Grant program from $500,000 a year to $3.71 million a year during the 2005 legislative session. The program provides scholarships to working adults who are at least 24 years old, are enrolled at least 3 credit hours, and demonstrate financial need. See the Arkansas Department of Higher Education for more information.

Minimum Wage Increase
SGFF was part of Give Arkansas A Rai$e Now, a coalition of faith, community and nonprofit organizations that successfully advocated for an increase in the state minimum wage. Arkansas’ minimum wage increased to $6.25 an hour effective October 1, 2006—the first increase in the minimum wage in nine years. An estimated 127,000 Arkansans benefited from this wage increase. Arkansas was the first state in the South in which the Legislature increased the minimum wage to a level higher than the federal minimum wage. Arkansas’ minimum wage will remain higher than the federal minimum wage until July 24, 2008, when the federal wage will increase from $5.85 an hour to $6.55 an hour. Employees subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws are entitled to the higher minimum wage rate.