The Buzz Is Building!: September, 2009
The Family Independence Initiative is expanding to another city, showing up in the media, and getting dozens of calls from families, funders, city governments, and program providers, all wanting FII to come to their communities, share our approach, and help them create change that will benefit low-income families across the nation.
As others are discovering, our experience in San Francisco showed us that our pilot projects can easily grow from a dozen families to hundreds in a matter of months. We know from what the families tell us that FII helps them create fundamental change in their lives. We know from our data that FII families make significant improvements in income among other things. And as the parents do better, their children’s grades and attendance also improve.
FII Is Heading to the East Coast!
The Family Independence Initiative is proud to announce that we are launching an East Coast pilot in Boston, MA. We’ve developed strong partnerships with people and organizations in Boston who understand that FII’s work is about the families, their aspirations, and the choices they make for themselves and their children. With support from the Eos Foundation and its Boston Rising initiative, Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s office, and others FII will work with hundreds of families over the next few years as they strengthen their communities and build economic stability.
Maurice Lim Miller’s Article Published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review
The Summer Issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review features “Reward Progress, Reduce Poverty” an article written by FII’s Founder and CEO, Maurice Lim Miller. In it, Maurice explores the way in which current systems set up disincentives for low-income people to make progress. He points out that “the biggest obstacle to reducing poverty is not low-income communities’ lack of capacity, but society’s stereotype that they are unable to help themselves.” Additionally, the article emphasizes how crucial it is that policy makers, funders, and service providers honor the strengths that exist in families and communities and work with families by following instead of leading the change process.
Download the full article here.
Economic Downturn Impacts FII Families
FII recently enrolled nearly 100 households in its San Francisco pilot (almost 200 more families are on FII’s waiting list). The families are struggling because of the economy. Even so, most are overcoming the obstacles low-income families are facing.
Below is the impact of the recession through March 2009, on the 16 families (86 adults, children, and teens) enrolled in FII for the last two years. The progress and resilience of the families continues to be impressive.
Update: June, 2009
FII Families Rally to Support Project Expansion
On Thursday, May 21st dozens of families from the Family Independence Initiative’s San Francisco pilot showed up at City Hall to attend a press conference where Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the tremendous success of their pilot project. Newsom stated that he wants to see FII’s project made “permanent” and “expanded dramatically” to include “thousands of people in hundreds of families” in San Francisco.
The morning of May 21st the San Francisco Chronicle published a front-page, above-the-fold article on FII and families. Coverage of the news conference was extensive, with stories about FII and the families appearing on local CBS, NBC, ABC, and Univision news programming, in addition to radio, print, and web coverage.
Recognizing the enormous potential of FII’s model on the national stage, Newsom said, “…there is no smarter stimulus opportunity for the Obama administration than to help fund this initiative.” He declared his plans to share FII’s model with the Obama administration in an upcoming June meeting.
FII Two-Year Report: San Francisco Pilot Project is a Tremendous Success
In mid-2007 the Family Independence Initiative (FII) enrolled 16 very low-income families from the Bay View-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley areas of San Francisco, CA. Eighteen months later the success of these first 36 adults and 50 children/teens has inspired almost 200 even lower income families to ask to join FII so they can follow the success of the first families. The first families made tremendous gains in income, debt reduction, and children’s grades, among other things.
The two-year pilot project’s results of initial families include:
- Average household income gain: 20.9%
- Number of business started/expanded: 6
- Percentage of children with grade improvement: 70%
- Number getting new health insurance: 17
- Number of new homeowners: 2
- Number of families recruited by first 16 families: 200 and growing
Download the entire report
FII’s President Maurice Lim Miller Presents at Skoll World Forum
This past March Maurice presented at the 2009 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. He was among the nearly 800 delegates from more than 60 countries convening for this gathering of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. Prominent figures in the fields of academia, finance, business, and policy met to debate, discuss, and strategize about solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social issues.
As part of his presentation Maurice presented a video produced by FII called “Families Speak on the Problem of Power.” Watch the video.
You can also watch Maurice’s presentation “here”: http://www.skollworldforum.com/forum-2009/video] (Scroll to the screen at the bottom of the page. Under the screen scroll to the session “Who matters? Impact, power, and accountability.” Click it and enjoy.)
Changing Attitudes About People Experiencing Poverty
One of the goals of FII is to combat stereotypes about people who experience poverty. We recently came across an interesting piece of data that challenges the prevailing belief that poor people are a stagnant group.
The Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007 says:
- Chronic poverty was relatively uncommon, with 2.4 percent of the population living in poverty all 36 months of the period.
Additionally, the study found that poverty is something that, at least sometimes, affects a large segment of the population:
- Nearly one-third of the population had at least one spell of poverty lasting 2 or more months during the 3-year period from 2001 to 2003.
In “Who Really Cares? The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism” Arthur C. Brooks, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University, examines charitable giving across America. He finds (among many other things) that the working poor tend to give a larger share of their earnings than people of higher income.
According to the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, the difference breaks down like this:
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