Mauricio Lim Miller had spent years working in social services in Oakland and San Francisco utterly frustrated at the lack of results and the absence of sustainable change or progress. He knew something needed to change and he knew it had to happen at the bottom level within families. He witnessed how individual communities provided support to their members and helped each achieve personal goals. Miller used a similar concept to create the Family Independence Initiative.

Miller offered families a regular stipend if they would agree to a monthly meeting and to setting and tracking goals for their households. His employees were not authorized to counsel or advise, simply to monitor the families’ goal progress. The program proved to be a great success because, when given the autonomy to set and meet their own goals, people made remarkable changes.

The families’ incomes increased by an average of 27%, and 40% of the families purchased homes within three years. The Family Independence Initiative has expanded to other cities and includes many different communities. Goals differ from place to place but Miller’s policy prevails –  provide them with the means in the form of small stipends and they will figure out the right strategy to improve their lives. Some groups want to establish better daycare for children, other communities want their members to be able to own houses, and others hope to set up businesses.

Giving people the responsibility for directing their own change allows them ownership over their success and investment in their future. Jesus Gerena, Director of the Family Independence Initiative explains, “The more families take initiative, the more they watch out for each other, the more they share successes, the less they need us.”

This is not just about helping each individual family but rather about transformative change and altering the way anti-poverty policy is crafted. Programs like the Family Independence Initiative show the potential to break the cycle of poverty in a sustainable way.

– Zoë Meroney

Source: The Boston Globe National Journal
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