In the years following the 2008 financial crisis, Dallas experienced significant population and economic growth. But data show that significant financial challenges persist for many residents. In 2017, 65 percent of Dallas residents (PDF) were categorized as financially insecure (having less than $2,000 in savings). 

Financial security, defined as having the financial resources to weather unexpected material hardships, such as medical emergencies or a job loss, is an important predictor of upward mobility from poverty. In particular, access to savings and credit bolster a household’s ability to withstand hardships. Yet, according to the Upward Mobility Data Dashboard, 48 percent of adults in Dallas have debt in collections, another indicator of financial insecurity.

Further, the economic recovery and growth Dallas experienced in the 2010s was divided along racial and economic lines. In 2016, Dallas was one of the lowest-ranked American cities (270th of 274) for inclusion, defined as when all people have the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from local economic prosperity. This exclusion from sharing in the city’s economic health and prosperity has created unequal mobility conditions and outcomes. For example, in 2022, Black and Hispanic households in Dallas held a median net worth of $6,607 and $23,223, respectively, compared with $203,474 for white households. 

These disparities in wealth and financial security led the city to take action. It adopted the Resilient Dallas plan, a racial equity plan (PDF), and a set of “Big Audacious Goals” to help Dallas become the most economically inclusive city. These plans empowered a wide range of public, private, and nonprofit sector stakeholders to address local disparities identified as critical for improving access to upward mobility for Dallas residents experiencing financial insecurity and vulnerability to hardship.

Dallas’s Big Audacious Goals
In its racial equity plan, Dallas adopted the goal to “become the most economically inclusive city by eliminating the wealth gap through workforce and economic inclusion, fostering full participation in [the] cultural and civic life of Dallas by acknowledging contributions of historically disadvantaged communities, and investing in economic and human development in equity priority areas.”

In 2022, as part of the racial equity plan, the city directed the Office of Community Care to address financial hardship as a social service. Through a partnership with Ascend Dallas and the International Rescue Committee, the office established the Dallas Financial Empowerment Center, which offers residents free access to a professional financial coach to help them reduce debt and increase savings. But to meet the high level of need across communities—and change the systems producing inequitable financial outcomes—the city recognized that even greater collaboration and collective action across the community was necessary.

To get help identifying new local partners and ultimately better help more Dallas residents reach financial stability, the Financial Empowerment Center partners joined the Urban Institute’s Mobility Action Learning Network (MALN) as a Mobility Action Team (MAT). The MALN was a 12-month training and technical assistance opportunity that provided coaching, peer learning opportunities, and data and planning tools to 26 localities across the United States to support them in boosting upward mobility for residents and eliminating racial inequities. 

This case study documents the steps the Dallas MAT took to enhance collaboration across sectors and better meet the financial needs of Dallas residents. It holds promising insights for local governments wanting to leverage their resources to catalyze upward mobility collaboration and action.

The Goal 
The Dallas MAT joined the MALN with the goal of organizing and mobilizing an already active cross-sector network of organizations into a coalition focused on improving household financial security in neighborhoods with persistent poverty.

How They Are Doing It 
Understanding and responding to systemic challenges. Advancing upward mobility from poverty involves engaging many types of organizations in a community to understand, acknowledge, and respond to the systemic barriers and challenges that produced disparate outcomes for marginalized groups in the first place. The City of Dallas is a local government with significant experience with this work. In 2021, the Dallas City Council unanimously passed the Racial Equity Resolution, which formed the Office of Equity and Inclusion. In 2022, the city adopted its racial equity plan, which identifies equity commitments and goals for the city to reduce disparities in services and outcomes and ensure all residents can thrive. 

To identify potential partners, the Dallas MAT began by mapping its member organizations’ efforts in the financial security ecosystem, including documenting the city’s plans, policies, and commitments and gaps in services. Although the Financial Empowerment Center had six locations and was serving more than 400 people, the ecosystem mapping exercise helped the MAT understand the opportunity and need for additional partners to be able to adequately support residents.

Identifying partners who can help address systemic challenges. The MAT then took inventory of local stakeholders (PDF), including financial institutions, community organizations, faith-based groups, health care providers, and additional government institutions and officials. In its theory of change, the MAT identified the need for these groups to work together to improve the landscape of credit conditions and economic opportunities in Dallas. 

Creating an upward mobility coalition. Through the stakeholder inventory exercise, the MAT recognized that many of the stakeholders it needed to partner with were already convening through a network of 81 financial institutions and community partners. That network is called the Financial Inclusion Roundtable and was established in 2018 as part of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s Bank On program, which formed a partnership between the City of Dallas, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. According to the Dallas City Council (PDF), the roundtable was organized to “stop vulture capitalism and help reduce consumer high interest loan debt, find alternative loan options and avoid further debt to households.” This mission aligned closely with the MAT’s values and goals for improving Dallas residents’ financial security and well-being, making the roundtable a natural home for the new Dallas Credit Coalition.

The MAT formally launched the Dallas Credit Coalition at the end of 2024 and started mobilizing key partners of the already active network around the common goal of supporting equitable access to credit. The team is continuing to build out the coalition by identifying missing stakeholders and recruiting additional key partners to manage the work of the coalition. This includes internal partners to support data analysis and external partners focused on small business development. They are continuing to use the resources in the Urban Institute’s “Toolkit for Increasing Upward Mobility in Your Community” to activate the coalition.

What They Learned
Commitment from local governments is essential. The Dallas MAT’s success organizing community stakeholders into the Dallas Credit Coalition in 2024 started in 2016, when the City of Dallas embraced data that identified significant disparities in several important financial health and security metrics and created the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the racial equity plan. 

Participation in the MALN—and the opportunity for the Dallas MAT to leverage the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Framework, planning tools, and Mobility Metrics to tell the story of the changes needed to improve conditions for upward mobility—would not have been possible without the equity commitments and calls to action from the City of Dallas. The equity commitments paved the way for the initial investments in the Financial Empowerment Centers and later served as a critical foundation for organizing community stakeholders around a shared agenda of inclusive financial security.

There are numerous ways to identify partners who can help advance your goals. The Dallas MAT was able to establish partnerships for the coalition quickly because it was building on years of the city’s efforts to mobilize stakeholders and create the conditions for such coalitions to exist. The MAT was aided in this work by participating in the MALN, which provided guidance and resources to help it identify, partner with, and manage key mobility stakeholders and champions central to building the Dallas Credit Coalition. 

For local governments seeking success with upward mobility planning and programs, building cross-sector upward mobility coalitions is critical. The “Toolkit for Increasing Upward Mobility in Your Community” has tools for communities and coalitions with existing partnerships and for those just starting out. 

The Dallas Credit Coalition is still in the early stages of fulfilling the goals and mission of the City of Dallas. But thanks to the partnership with the Financial Inclusion Roundtable and Dallas’s commitment to a shared vision of success, collective action is being taken to change the systems that produced current inequalities and advance “equity, inclusion, and social justice so all Dallasites can thrive.”