The last few months has been full of big announcements, but we’re excited to share one more with you today!
Springboard To Opportunities is thrilled to announce that we have been selected to join the Aspen Family Prosperity Innovation Community (Family Prosperity), an initiative of Ascend at the Aspen Institute. This unique, national learning and action community brings together talented leaders and groundbreaking organizations committed to developing bold strategies and solutions that strengthen the health, well-being and economic stability of families with low incomes.
Specifically, we will be using this community and partnership to leverage our research and evaluation of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, our new basic income initiative. At Springboard, we deeply believe that direct service work and policy change are two sides of the same coin. One must always inform the other. Family Prosperity will give us another opportunity to put that belief into action. We are entering the coalition with nine other organizations from the Ascend Network to participate in the learning and action community, but will also be joining six research and policy organizations working to advance families’ economic security, as well as thirteen national advisors, who will provide additional perspective, content expertise and connections for Family Prosperity.
While this collaborative will give us the opportunity to share and leverage our work around The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, it will also help us explore questions of what it means to work and what type of work is valued. Our hope is that providing families with a basic income will allow them the freedom to pursue work that provides dignity, rather that just a paycheck. In addition, we believe there is value in the work that our mother’s do every day: caring for children, providing transportation, cooking, cleaning, and other jobs that are often considered “women’s work” and are undervalued and typically not compensated in our country. Being a part of Family Prosperity connects us with other organizations and leaders across the country asking these same questions and provides a platform to find solutions together.
But most importantly for us, Springboard’s selection ensures that our families’ voices are included in the conversation to improve the lives of children and families for generations. We believe that the work we are doing with The Magnolia Mother’s Trust has the potential to change the conversation regarding the social service system, resident services, and especially the dignity and respect offered to low-income families in America. We are excited to have a national platform to share the stories and voices of our families participating in the program and ensuring their experience and knowledge is a part of the conversation.
You can learn more about Family Prosperity and the other organizations we will be collaborating with here. We’ll be sharing more in the months to come, so be sure to follow up on social media (links at the bottom of the email!) if you don’t already.
Thank you for partnering with us as we work to find innovative and bold solutions to the persistent problem of generational poverty.