How "Adashe" is transforming lives of IDPs in FCT

Community health workers are stepping in to deliver essential healthcare services where conflict has destroyed local health facilities. These locally-trusted health workers conduct door-to-door visits to provide immunizations, screen children for malnutrition, refer emergency care and offer mental health support to those who need it, bridging gaps where traditional services can’t operate.

Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building acts as a hub for connecting the city’s many anti-poverty programs and organizations, with partnerships that holistically tackle everything from job training and guaranteed income initiatives to community health programs. Since 2014, the city’s poverty rate has dropped from nearly 27 percent to 17.1 percent.

In displacement camps where medical care is scarce, community midwives are working against the odds to provide safe OB-GYN care and deliveries. An individual midwife can see anywhere from 18 to 50 women a month who struggle to access basic maternal health services.

The nonprofit GiveDirectly provides refugees with cash to help them sustain themselves, focusing on those living in cities, as they’re less likely to receive the same assistance as humanitarian camps do. Nearly 1,200 people were given $925 to spend however they wanted — some opening bank accounts, others starting businesses — and reported they were able to nearly double their monthly income and after six months, 88% of recipients were earning more money than ever before.

The Denver Basic Income Project provided people experiencing homelessness with no-strings-attached monthly stipends that they could spend however they’d like. At the end of the pilot, twice as many participants were in stable housing, more of them were working full time, and the nights that participants spent in shelters decreased by half.

A guaranteed income program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, provided 130 single caregivers who made below 80% of the local median income with $500 cash payments, no strings attached. The 18-month program, Cambridge Recurring Income for Success, helped participants increase their savings, cover emergencies, and spend more time with their children.

Connecticut and several other East Coast states are implementing baby bond programs to help children in low-income families generate wealth. The programs create trust funds for babies born into families on public health insurance that are managed by the state until they turn 18.

In Jackson, Mississippi, the nonprofit-run Magnolia Mother’s Trust is a guaranteed income program providing a no-strings-attached monthly stipend of $1,000 to Black mothers living in affordable housing to help them combat poverty.

With a lack of government aid and interference, border communities are stepping up to care for both migrants and local residents through efforts like The Sidewalk School and Casa de la Esperanza — nonprofits that offer shelter, programming and resource centers for migrants and locals in need.

A pilot project by a pair of nonprofits in Atlanta, Georgia, gives monthly, no-strings-attached payments of $850 to 650 predominantly Black women who are earning 200% or less of the federal poverty level. The goal of the concept, called guaranteed income, is to combat poverty while giving the recipients agency to spend the money on their specific needs.