SHIELDS for Families is honored to stand beside and work with the City of Compton to implement this new initiative and be a part of the positive change for the community and the families who reside in this great City.
WHAT IS THE COMPTON PLEDGE?
The Compton pledge is a landmark guaranteed income initiative that will distribute recurring cash relief to low-income residents for 2 years, starting in late 2020.
The Compton Pledge will be the largest city-based guaranteed income pilot in the US, and will harness the power of unconditional cash transfers in service of racial and economic justice.
The Pledge is built by a broad coalition led by Mayor Aja Brown, the Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI), the Jain Family Institute (JFI) and local and national leaders that serve marginalized communities and justice movements across Compton and the US.
Unbanked Comptonians will be provided with no-cost financial services through a new online platform, the first of its kind in US guaranteed income initiatives.
Ambitious in its scale and design, the Pledge aims to inform policies at the state and federal level.
WHAT IS A GUARANTEED INCOME?
A guaranteed income is a type of cash transfer program that provides continuous, unconditional cash payments to individuals or households. A guaranteed income differs from other social safety net policies by providing steady, predictable cash to spend however the recipient sees fit, without limitations.
Our vision of a guaranteed income is to supplement, not replace, the existing social safety net as a tool for protecting livelihoods and enabling economic and racial justice.
WHO RECEIVES CASH FROM THE COMPTON PLEDGE?
Residents of Compton who receive cash will be randomly chosen from a pre-verified group of low-income Comptonians, working in collaboration with national and local community-based organizations which have built the infrastructure to deliver Covid-19 relief cash transfers to individuals who are excluded from welfare programs and formal financial institutions. These sources ensure the lowest burden of documentation on participants, with the aim of making the program inclusive and truly representative. The random selection deliberately draws from the widest possible range of Compton’s community, representing a cross-section of low-income populations, such as households with income less than 200% of the Supplemental Poverty Measure and those excluded from federal welfare programs.
This method of enrollment will allow the Compton Pledge to test more inclusive and effective mechanisms for cash transfer delivery while supporting the 1 in 4 who are unbanked, the formerly incarcerated who are denied welfare benefits, and undocumented individuals who are denied the right to a fair, minimum wage.
Only one member of each household will be eligible to receive the benefit.
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL
The Compton Pledge is led by Mayor Aja Brown in partnership with the Jain Family Institute, an applied research group, and the Fund for Guaranteed Income, a registered public charity launched to steward guaranteed income as a path to racial justice. The Compton Pledge is supported by a Community Advisory Council of trusted leaders and activists to co-design the mission-driven initiative.
Some organizations represented on the council include: CHIRLA, One FairWage, MyBrother’s Keeper, Neighborhood Housing Services, Color Compton, Sylvia Nunn Angels,Vecinos Unidos Por Compton, Compton YouthBuild, Compton Advocates, Originals Nation, and SHIELDS for Families!
COMPTON PLEDGE