As unemployment continues to remain high, we must look for ways to allow small businesses to expand and create jobs. Small businesses are engines for job creation—they create 80 percent of new jobs—but the recession has taken a toll on small business owners’ ability to access the credit they need to expand their businesses. A number of initiatives have the potential to increase small business lending to sound borrowers.

Microfinance has officially arrived, as evidenced by recent debate about its core purpose.  For example, the industry has been portrayed in a New York Times article as seeking to indebt the poor and the vulnerable for personal profit.  The recent controversy around microfinance has demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the industry among intelligent commentators.  However, the positive outcome is that it has revealed the growing role that microfinance plays in the global economy to bring financial services to underserved populations.

Woodstock Institute and over 300 local and national consumer and community organizations called for immediate Congressional action on a proposal to put Americans back to work and prevent more layoffs and cuts in crucial frontline services.  The proposal, the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), would provide $100 billion over two years, creating or saving 750,000 jobs providing local services and 250,000 education jobs.

Woodstock Institute staff and members of the Illinois Community Investment Coalition (ICIC) left a big impression at last month’s National Community Reinvestment Coalition Annual Conference. Woodstock President Dory Rand, Senior Vice President Geoff Smith, and Vice President Tom Feltner shared Woodstock’s expertise with community investment advocates from across the country as presenters on panels with topics inlcuding strategies to influence elected officials, foreclosure prevention, and promoting sustainable lending.

Financial reform is at a critical juncture in Washington. The House has already passed a bill to create a strong and independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to put consumers’ interests over those of Wall Street and crack down on the risky lending that spurred the financial crisis. However, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) continues to compromise the agency’s independence in the interest of bipartisan support.

So many of us—families and businesses—are struggling to pay our bills during these difficult times.