We produce the Struggling to Move Up: The Real Cost Measure in order to enable communities to set a universal goal^* for all families – to afford a decent standard of living, to live with dignity and agency – and to see which families struggle, in which communities, so that we, our partners and policymakers can develop strategies targeted to their specific circumstances.
 
Once we have a clearer picture of which families struggle, the next question is what we can do to help them. How can communities put insights from the Real Cost Measure into action?
 
Our new brief, Building Economic Inclusion: Putting the Real Cost Measure into Action builds upon the Real Cost Measure by offering suggestions of areas we could  address individually and together to help improve the well-being of families below the Real Cost Measure.

At United Way, we believe everyone deserves an opportunity to achieve the building blocks of a good life - a quality education, financial stability, and good health – and we believe that expanding this opportunity is both a core objective and a key strategy to fulfilling our mission.  
 
Unfortunately, for far too many California families – over one in three households in California, representing 3.5 million families – even a modest level of security remains elusive.  These struggling families reflect the diversity of California; they come from every household composition, represent every racial and ethnic group, and they overwhelmingly already are working. More information on this and other results from Struggling to Move Up, our Real Cost Measure study, including an executive summary, interactive maps, dashboards, regional profiles and more are available here.

We produce the Real Cost Measure in order enable communities to set a universal goal for all families – to afford a decent standard of living, to live with dignity and agency – and to see which families struggle, in which communities, so that we, our partners and policymakers can develop strategies targeted to their specific circumstances.

So what can communities do to help these families? Philanthropy is a very important way to help our neighbors and improve our communities - volunteering, funding and providing charitable services to struggling families is one obvious way communities can help - but the highest impact we can create is to change the environment for families to increase the odds they can succeed.

With every release of our Real Cost Measure, from 2015 to the present, we have provided examples of possible options to change the odds at large scale, and now we’ve added more detail and pulled those suggestions into a companion document, Building Economic Inclusion, available here. We hope this document will assist community groups in making strategic decisions about how to help families move up. Building Economic Inclusion discusses the following major categories:

• Preserve and expand subsidized health coverage
• Provide childcare and preschool for struggling families
• Maximize current income supports such as the earned income tax credit (EITC) and CalFresh
• Help adults level up their education
• Smooth the decline of income supports
• Help families build assets and protect them from payday loans and other predatory financial services
• Integrate and naturalize immigrants
• Increase housing stock and prioritize support for renters
• Make work pay
• Adapt to the changing nature of work

^*Setting a universal goal for families of all types, no matter their starting point, a "targeted universalism" approach, is essential to advancing equity and dismantling systemic racial injustice. For more on targeted universalism, an approach pioneered by jon a. powell, founder and director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, see https://belonging.berkeley.edu/targeted-universalism.

We all at UWCA were heartbroken and devastated by the March 16 mass shooting incident involving the murder of 8 people in Atlanta, 6 of whom were women of Asian descent, and shocked again on Monday to see a 65-year-old woman of Asian descent knocked down, kicked and stomped as she walked to church, in an incident caught on video. We acknowledge these attacks and other acts of hate targeted at Asian communities has created an environment forcing many to feel unsafe in their own homes and fearful for lives of their friends and family. 

Sadly, violence and hate directed against Asian Americans have deep roots in in our history, from racist discrimination in the late 1800s under color of law in states like California and at the federal level under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the unconstitutional internment and dispossession of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast during World War II, to violent attacks such as mob violence against Filipino workers in Watsonville in 1930, the tragic murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, and more. This history makes the frequency with which we saw mentions of a “China-Virus” or “Kung Flu” from elected representatives and media personalities even more triggering for our communities, and those speakers more responsible.

This past week, Governor Newsome signed four new executive orders that will:

• Wage Garnishment & Student Loan Protections: Exempt garnishment for any individuals receiving federal, state or local government financial assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes recovery rebates under the CARES Act. Funds may still be garnished for child support, family support, spousal support or criminal restitution for victims. The Governor also announced a new initiative for students with commercially owned Federal Family Education Loan or privately held student loans who are struggling to make payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic which now may also be eligible for expanded relief. Relief options include providing a minimum of 90 days forbearance, waiving late payment fees, ensuring that no borrower is subject to negative credit reporting, and helping eligible borrowers enroll in other assistance programs.The text of the Governor’s executive order can be found here and a copy can be found here.
• School Transparency: Empower schools to focus on responding to COVID-19 and to provide transparency to their communities.The order extends the deadlines for local educational agencies to submit Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAP), which are multi-year planning documents tied to budget projections. By law, LCAPs must be developed in collaboration with parents, students, teachers, and community groups. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, school leaders are appropriately focused on managing the immediate needs of their students and families.

This past week Govenror Newsom signed 6 new executive, ranging from juvenile justice to the establishment of a new task force on economic recovery.  

• Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery: Bringing together leaders across California’s diverse, innovative economic and social sectors to chart a path forward on recovery in the wake of COVID-19, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the formation of a state Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. The Task Force will be co-chaired by Governor Newsom’s Chief of Staff Ann O’Leary and philanthropist, environmentalist and businessman Tom Steyer, who was also appointed Chief Advisor to the Governor on Business and Jobs Recovery. He will receive no compensation for his service.

• Members of the Task Force include Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Senate Minority Leader Shannon Grove, Assembly Minority Leader Marie Waldron, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Walt Disney Company Executive Chairman Bob Iger, former head of the Small Business Administration Aida Álvarez and dozens of prominent leaders in business, labor, health care, academia and philanthropy.

Changes to California's SNAP Program 

California has officially been approved to allow food stamp recipients to buy groceries online. 

California will be allowed to participate in an ongoing pilot program experimenting with giving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients the option to use their benefits to shop for groceries online. This will allow nearly 5 million more people to use online shopping services that often include delivery. 

California is expected to launch its SNAP online program by the end of the month.