The statistics on families living below the poverty line in the United States are absolutely staggering.
Just from February to May 2020:
The number of non-elderly individuals living in families with combined weekly earnings below the poverty line rose by 14.7 million (24 percent), from 60.4 million to 75.2 million.
The number of children in families with below-poverty earnings rose by 3.8 million (22 percent), from 17.3 million to 21.1 million.
Between May 2019 and May 2020, the number of non-elderly individuals with below-poverty family earnings rose by close to 13 million.
The number of non-elderly individuals with no family earnings rose even more: by 16.5 million (40 percent), from 41.5 million to 58.0 million.
Among non-elderly Black and Latino individuals, the number with below-poverty family earnings rose by 2.7 million (27 percent) and 4.1 million (29 percent), respectively. Among non-elderly, non-Latino whites, the increase was 5.5 million (17 percent).
Source: Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, June 16, 2020 Press Release
So, what are we planning to do about it at the Inga Kulberg Tesler Foundation?
Consistent with our Mission Statement, we plan to make a difference “one family at a time.” To do so, we intend to build out both a “supply” and “demand” side of our organization. Think of us as an Uber-like platform in which we connect “drivers” (our group of parents currently living in poverty who we will train for entry-level and beyond jobs) with desirable “passengers” (our group of cultivated corporations willing and able to provide internships and jobs to our trained recruits).
Fortunately for us, the “supply” side is already serviced by a number of excellent charitable organizations. These range from charities that help with providing clothing to housing to job training to childcare. Some even offer a combination of some or all of these services. We intend to partner with many of those charities to identify, train and prepare our job candidates. We expect to leverage the skill sets of our partners and fill in the gaps with our own services as necessary to ensure that our job candidates are ready and well prepared to succeed in the employment opportunities we present to them.
Our belief is that once our network of employers gets a taste for the training and work ethic of our candidates, word will spread and our candidates will become highly sought after, creating a virtuous cycle of increasing employment opportunities. As our candidates move from internships to full-time employment at market-rate salaries, we will change lives. The earning power of our participants will increase and with those increases will come opportunities for better housing, better schools for their children, and better access to healthcare. Income, housing, education, and healthcare are the keys to better outcomes for these families in real-time and across generations to come.
Let’s start with one family at a time and see where we can go.
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