Pathways to Prosperity -- Phases to Date

1. Reframing Poverty (Fall-Winter 2008)

To initiate the prosperity project, we held a series of conversations with policy leaders and other citizens to begin to think about ways to reframe discussions about poverty in Minnesota, and to begin in a way that will lead to policy changes.

See the Citizens League policy blog and the November 2008 issue of the Minnesota Journal for the complete results of these discussions.

2. Poverty, Health and Understanding the Public Assistance System (Spring-Summer 2009)

In order to best understand the public assistance system, we worked to develop some of the key ideas from the Reframing Poverty Phase further with people who are more directly impacted by poverty -- including the organizations they interact with -- to better understand the real trade-offs in our policy decisions.

Outcomes:
  • Build relationships between policymakers in all areas in order to be prepared to advance ideas as they are developed.
  • Develop a new model to address policies relating to poverty and health that will reflect the work that happens throughout organizations. This will reframe our thinking about poverty and promote engagement in solutions.
  • Develop findings and conclusions that will be taken up by a group that will develop recommendations in the next phase of the project.

3. Pathways to Prosperity: Developing Recommendations (Fall 2009-Summer 2010)

In the Developing Recommendations Phase we organized a group to develop recommendations based on the findings and conclusions from the Reframing Poverty and Understanding the Public Assistance System Phases. The three key areas for our recommendations include:

  • Family Prosperity - We believe most Minnesota families have the capacity for independence, and that our policies and systems should be designed to take advantage of that capacity through meaningful decision-making opportunities.
  • Community Networks - Creating civic infrastructure (networks) within communities is an essential way to provide the kinds of connections people need to move out of poverty and towards prosperity.
  • Government Role - New approaches must provide flexibility that allows for pooling resources and integrating assistance in ways that take the whole person, whole family, and whole community into consideration.

See the March-April 2010 issue of the Minnesota Journal for a synopsis of the committee work.

Developing Recommendations Committee Meetings:

All meetings were held 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

October 15, 2009
Flannery Construction

October 22, 2009
Center for Changing Lives

October 27, 2009
Wilder Foundation

November 5, 2009
Center for Changing Lives

November 12, 2009
Wilder Foundation

December 3, 2009
Wilder Foundation

December 10, 2009
Wilder Foundation

December 17, 2009
Wilder Foundation

 January 7, 2010
Children's Home Society

January 14, 2010
Children's Home Society

January 21, 2010
Children's Home Society

January 28, 2010
Children's Home Society

Meeting locations:

Flannery Construction
1375 Saint Anthony Ave., St. Paul

Center for Changing Lives
2400 Park Ave. S, Minneapolis

Wilder Foundation
451 Lexington Pkwy N, St. Paul

Children's Home Society
1605 Eustis Street, St. Paul

Committee Resources: Click here for links to example programs and policies the committee reviewed.

4. Advancing and Developing Solutions (Summer 2010-Summer 2011)

As the Advancing Solutions Phase of Pathways to Prosperity begins, we will work to create implementation strategies to advance the recommendations from the Developing Recommendations Phase.

Our summer 2010 work included meeting with community members to get their feedback on the Creating Pathways to Prosperity working document as well as identify the recommendations they feel have the greatest implementation potential in the near future. From this feedback, we are revising the working document and assembling a steering team to develop and advance the prosperity solutions from the recommendations.

Click here for a summary of the working document that frames the work of the steering team. The approach is also summarized in the September-October 2010 issue of the Minnesota Journal.

One area that we are focusing on in 2011 are a set of policy tools called Conditional Cash Transfers. These have the potential to more directly support family prosperity and decision-making than current welfare policies. For more information, read this memo from the Common Grounds group at the University of Minnesota.

5. Establishing Family Independence Demonstrations (Fall 2011-2013)

More than 50 people took part in Citizens League advancement groups in 2011. Through this work, it became clear that policy implementation must focus on the family prosperity and decision making level of change and that in addition to disincentives to earn, there are also strong disincentives to save and that many wealth and asset-building initiatives run into this barrier.

The advancement groups were followed by a series of workshops around the state in August 2011 to test the ideas of using more conditional cash transfers and approaches that develop family networks that directly build human capacity rather than "family-professional" relationships. This led us to focus on an approach that had been piloted in Oakland, San Francisco, Oahu and Boston called the Family Independence Initiative (FII).

With FII, groups of families assist each other in becoming better goal-setters and decision-makers. A form of conditional cash transfer is used that is based on goal-setting and reporting to peers. Rather than relying on advice from professionals, families become greater problem solvers as they look to other families who have been successful in a particular area as their resource. For this approach to succeed, a comprehensive approach to asset building that is not penalized must also be implemented.

In 2012, the Citizens League is proposing to build upon the FII approach and broaden the impact through our mission of civic policy making in partnership with several Minnesota nonprofits. This will immediately impact the lives of the low-income families attempting to achieve prosperity.

The Citizens League submitted a letter of intent to the Family Independence Initiative who is now looking for 2-3 national partners to implement their approach. We have been exploring the viability of moving forward with several Minnesota organizations who have agreed to be listed as potential partners in the effort:

To learn more see the draft of the 2012 Advancement Plan.

For more information on the project, please contact Bob DeBoer at citizenbob1[at]gmail.com.