Press
A Veteran Antipoverty Activist Finds a Cheaper Way to Achieve Results
Caroline Preston, The Chronicle of Philanthropy
April 18, 2010
Back in the 1990s, Maurice Lim Miller had plenty of reasons to feel a professional high. The San Francisco social-services group he had helped to expand from six employees to 120 was considered one of the country’s most effective. In 1999 his work to show people how to overcome poverty was honored in President Bill Clinton’s State of the Union address.
But the praise didn’t sit right with Mr. Miller.
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$2,000 a Year to Help SF Families Improve
Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle
May 21, 2009
Juan Michel, a 53-year-old father of nine living in San Francisco’s Mission District, was skeptical when a friend told him he could get free money for improving his family’s life. Two years later, his wife has started her own floral business, his kids are getting better grades, his family is eating smaller portions of their favorite Mexican foods – and he’s a few thousand dollars richer for making it happen. Sound too good to be true in this age of get-rich-quick scams? Not according to Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is convinced the unusual strategy could help struggling families in this famously expensive city where low-income and even middle-income people are increasingly being priced out.
[Read at SFGate.com]
Reward Progress, Reduce Poverty: Most antipoverty programs fail to nurture the strengths of individuals and communities
Maurice Lim Miller, Stanford Social Innovation review
Summer 2009
Derek had recently been released from juvenile hall in San Francisco, after serving time for a robbery—a robbery in which his friend Benjamin has refused to participate. Benjamin convinced Derek to go with him to apply for a construction training program that would help them get “real jobs” and end their involvement in gangs ad crime. I was the director of the training program, and we had only one open slot. Like most social services, my program prioritized the “most in need,” so Derek got that last slot. I told them whom we accepted and why. “See! You should have gone on that job with me!” Derek said to Ben. It was then that I realized the message my organization and I were sending.
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SF poverty program shows positive results
KGO-TV, Channel 7, San Francisco
May 21, 2009
A new way of fighting poverty is showing results tonight. And even with daunting budget problems in San Francisco, the mayor is promising to find the money to expand the program. There’s plenty of bad news about the nation’s economy. These families symbolize something positive. They’re part of a program called the Family Independence Initiative.
[Watch at abclocal.go.com]
A California Mayor’s Challenge Leads to an Innovative Resource-Pooling Strategy: ‘Sticking Together’
Anne Stuhldreher, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Fall 2004
Veteran antipoverty activist Maurice Lim Miller had never met Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. So when Miller’s home phone rang late one night in 2000, he was surprised to find one of America’s best-known municipal leaders on the line. Brown was fuming. Oakland’s programs to help its poor become more economically self-sufficient weren’t working. A recent city department request for $10 million looked to him like “poverty pimping,” creating 125 jobs for City Hall bureaucrats but barely benefiting the youth it was supposed to help. Frustrated, Brown dialed information to find Miller, the longtime executive director of Asian Neighborhood Design (AND), founded to help improve housing standards in San Francisco’s overcrowded Chinatown and other Asian enclaves. Miller’s antipoverty strategies were so successful that President Bill Clinton praised them in his 1999 State of the Union address. The mayor issued a challenge: If Miller didn’t have to play by the existing rules, could he do better? Could he craft a strategy that would truly help people permanently exit poverty?
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It Takes an Affinity Group to Tackle poverty
Michael Bernick, San Francisco Examiner
June 28, 2001.
A main theme of Gov. Gray Davis’ anti-poverty efforts has been the use of California’s extra-governmental institutions: churches, neighborhood associations and volunteer networks. Now a provocative anti-poverty initiative, “200 Families Out of Poverty,” is emerging in Oakland that takes the neighborhood approach to another level, emphasizing the ability of low-income families to work together and pool resources, outside of government.
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East Bay Families Find Pathways Out Of Poverty
East Bay Community Foundation’s Connections
Fall 2002, Vol. 6, No. 1
Over the past year a group of low-income West Oakland families have begun re-envisioning themselves and finding new pathways out of poverty.
Instead of individuals struggling to get above the poverty line, they see themselves as a strong, capable group with skills in the arts, teaching, counseling and holistic healing. Over the past year this new vision has turned into a business plan for a neighborhood cultural center where their strengths can be showcased and a better income can be earned.
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