Pathways and Incentives out of Poverty
From KnowledgePlex Week in Review: A Poverty, Work and Opportunity Task Force appointed by Providence, R.I., mayor David Cicilline, has outlined ways to help low-income people find pathways out of poverty, reported The Providence Journal. Among the recommendations: advise low-income families to use regular furniture stores instead of rent-to-own stores; keep a check on high-cost lenders and check-cashing businesses; expand adult education; and, work harder to prevent teen pregnancies. Cicilline is acting on some of the Task Force’s recommendations but has not committed to all of them. Meanwhile, in Chicago, 430 low-income tenants at the former Henry Horner Homes have been enrolled in the experimental Pathways to Rewards program, said the Chicago Tribune. The core idea: find ways to reward positive behavior instead of exclusively punishing negative behavior. Under the program, parents earn points by looking for a job, paying rent on time, and being involved with their children’s school. Children earn points for keeping a clean room and getting to school on time. One point equals one dollar, with other kinds of assistance-new clothes, for example-also offered (and funded by private grants). In New York, a similar program offers as much as $5,000 to poverty-level families who “do right” by their kids.