During the month of April, we at the Office of Financial Empowerment have celebrated all the new emerging guaranteed income pilots that are popping up around the country, and our new report, From Pilots to Policy Change: Recommendations from San Francisco’s Guaranteed Income Advisory Group. We believe everyone has the right to live with dignity and have the autonomy to decide what is best for them and their future. Learn more about our new report, upcoming webinars, and our latest opportunity to partner with us as a financial institution for our Kindergarten to College Program.
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Our latest report, From Pilots to Policy Change: Recommendations from San Francisco’s Guaranteed Income Advisory Group examine how to move guaranteed income from pilots to policy in San Francisco while maintaining and strengthening the City’s support for pilot development and implementation. These recommendations reflect a shared belief that direct and unconditional cash transfers are an effective anti-poverty tool, and that investment in the infrastructure to create and run these programs is needed to bring the current field in San Francisco to scale. We believe, that to build the political will necessary to support guaranteed income more systemically, we must work to change the narrative around poverty and abundance. Instead of accepting the myths of scarcity and deservedness, we must reclaim a dormant framework based on values of abundance and dignity.
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One of our programs, Smart Money Coaching (SMC), provides free, confidential, one-on-one financial guidance. Our financial coaching is included as one service within the Rising Up Initiative, a bold public-private campaign with the goal of ending youth homelessness in San Francisco. Over the past year that we have been providing financial coaching to these youth, we have been inspired by their stories of success like this one:
“I still can’t believe that I have my own bank account. I went four years without one, and I owe it all to my SMC. I had an account in ChexSystems for four years that I wanted to work on because it prevented me from opening a bank account, and it was costing me a lot of money. My coach asked me for various information and questions about the ChexSystems account that prevented me from having a bank account. I value how clear my coach was with me and how he set realistic expectations, and it was about tackling one financial challenge at a time. My coach is also very accessible, and I feel comfortable reaching out to him at any moment. He advocated for me, and within a little over a month, my coach called me to share that my negative ChexSystems account had been removed from my report and that I was free to open a bank account. My coach is getting ready to help me achieve my credit goals and I can’t wait.”
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