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January 21, 2010
Pathways to Prosperity: Recent Committee Work
Recently, the Pathways to Prosperity committee dispersed into several small groups to look at a variety of policies and programs from across the nation and the globe that might hold some promising ideas for re-orienting Minnesota's current system in more effective and efficient ways. We've now come back together as a full committee and had a very rich discussion about several conceptual frames that are showing signs of success. Here are some concepts we are exploring further:
Give incentives directly to families and hold them accountable for specific outcomes. This works well particularly when families are able to work with other families, develop supportive relationships, and learn together. This is in contrast to more traditional services in which funds are given to an institution that then chooses and delivers the services to a person or family.
Provide 'wrap around services.' This has been successful in the educational realm where the mission is to get kids college ready. These programs recognize the importance of helping families with other concerns that get in the way of educational goals, such as chronic health issues, violent crime, or poor housing. Wrap around services require collaboration between different institutions - a geographic effort - and provide a centralized zone in which families can access assistance and can interact with each other. Funding from public, private and non-profit is how many efforts get going and succeed.
Networks among neighbors and mutual aid societies. Whole communities should be engaged in helping their neighbors in times of need. Structures are needed for this. The current system funnels people into government offices where their primary relationship is with a caseworker. We need a system that guides people into interaction with their neighbors so they can build relationships with each other and develop supportive community structures. In such a system people are not just receivers of services they are also givers of support. They become problem-solvers and solution-designers. Accountability to each other is key. We want to explore what kinds of relationships to an obligated group create results - the civic infrastructure.
Our key question: How can we increase, or reallocate, resources, including community resources, for families on an equitable basis that increases choice? Our current system requires all families seeking assistance to 'navigate the line' - a maze of eligibility paperwork and assessments to determine what a family needs and what services they are allowed. Not all families need intensive services and many are capable of making independent choices and managing their own pathway out of poverty.
We are looking for ways to redirect some of the resources from this bureaucracy that not everyone needs, to intervening community-based alternatives that prevent poverty just as much as they ameliorate it. We want to realign incentives with opportunity and independence.
What do you think of these ideas, or what ideas would you recommend this committee explore further?
Posted by janna at January 21, 2010 2:06 PM