The STEP Fund wants to understand how to serve the community by providing no-interest, easy to access loans. To learn about the impacts of our loans, the STEP Fund has partnered with the Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame.
We are studying how loans can best help people and families like yours. By agreeing to participate, you grant permission to researchers at Notre Dame to collect and track information about you by linking to records that are already collected about you from government and private agencies. These administrative data may include earnings and employment information from the California Employment Development Department, housing status and housing information from Infutor, homeless system use from Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS), among others.
You do not have to be in this study if you do not want to. If you choose not to be in the study, you will not have access to a loan from the STEP Fund. Because the STEP Fund is a new program that is collecting information about its effectiveness through this research, eligibility for the program requires an agreement to participate in this research. If you are not able to consent to participate, we will provide you information about other programs that may be available to you. Even if you agree to be part of the study, you may or may not receive a loan from the STEP Fund.
We will share the minimum amount of personally identifying information needed for data-providing agencies to match their records. It will be known to these agencies that you applied for assistance from the STEP Fund, but no other information about your circumstances will ne provided. Your information will be spread for research purposes only, and will not affect your eligibility for other programs. Agencies cannot share your personal information with anyone else. The research team may contact you to do a follow-up survey, in which case you will receive compensation after completing the survey.
If you agree to participate but later change your mind, you can drop out at any time and Notre Dame will stop collecting your information. If you do change your mind, Notre Dame will keep the collected information unless you ask otherwise.
The research team takes your data security extremely seriously and will do everything they can to keep your records safe. There are minor risks to your participation in the study, like breach of confidentiality and invasion of privacy. However, the research team will use a number of safeguards, including but not limited to, encryption and password-protection to ensure that the risks to your information are minimal.
If you have any questions about STEP Fund services, you can contact (310) 598-3360. If you have questions about this project or if you have a research problem, you can contact the researcher, Rob Collinson, at (574) 631-0428 or rcollin8@nd.edu. If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, you can contact the Notre Dame Office of Research Compliance at (574)-631-7432 or compliance@nd.edu.