In 2024, the Saint Paul Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) and 10Seven completed a groundbreaking study of the geographic spread of financial trauma in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
10Seven, a research-led organization focused on wealth justice, spearheaded the research effort by developing a detailed, multi-layered Traumagraph™ that maps incidents of financial trauma and related data across the city.
The Traumagraph™ comprehensively represents the people of Saint Paul and their reported financial experiences. It uniquely employs a “mixed methods” approach, leveraging robust combination of qualitative, quantitative, and secondary data to show how prevalent financial trauma is.
OFE and the City of Saint Paul have already leveraged this data to develop programming and are hoping to use it to influence policy change. Our goal is to prioritize solutions that directly benefit residents and provide opportunities to build and sustain wealth.
For example, the Traumagraph™ insights have informed the approach to CollegeBound, which will include whole family wealth justice education and curricula. We have also developing programming specifically designed to address financial trauma. This will help Saint Paul residents confidently navigate the US financial system.
But this is just the beginning. We are excited for the Traumagraph™ to inspire even more solutions for Saint Paul and enable socioeconomic progress for generations to come.