LIFT

Over its 13-year history, LIFT has helped more than 70,000 individuals and families on a path out of poverty.  LIFT has been an ally to these clients by recognizing and responding to their need for customized support, and delivering services in a manner that respects their inherent dignity and potential.  Because of LIFT's comprehensive and compassionate model, thousands of clients have secured better-paying jobs, safer homes, valuable education and training, and the means to afford healthcare, transportation, and food.  LIFT currently works with over 6,000 clients annually to meet their immediate and long-term needs and our goal is that 10,000 LIFT volunteers will have advanced 100,000 clients on their path toward economic security and personal success by 2015.

LIFT offers a unique model of civic engagement for its student volunteers. Unlike other volunteer opportunities on college campuses, LIFT provides a sustained commitment to community issues and poverty alleviation where volunteers work four to 10 hours per week in a year-long commitment, an average of 73 hours per year – nearly two times that of their state, regional and national counterparts.

Through service with LIFT, students are directly exposed to the systemic causes, issues, and solutions to poverty.  The intention is that the LIFT volunteer experience will have a profound effect on individual students by instilling key values.  LIFT alumni go on to pursue careers across all sectors, championing the practices and policies that aim to eliminate poverty.  From pursuing degrees in social work and public policy to working as case managers and social workers, many LIFT alumni become public servants in the social service or government sectors. Other alumni engaged in work in the private sector continue to volunteer and contribute philanthropically to causes aimed at eradicating domestic poverty.

Because LIFT volunteers are not case managers, they are uniquely positioned within the community to link clients to crucial services and benefits they need to stabilize themselves and their families. With appropriate training, LIFT volunteers can handle all "one-off" needs like benefits screening/enrollment and résumé writing within the office. They then refer clients to trained professionals and experts (e.g. social workers, legal professionals, etc.) at the necessary point of intervention. In this way, clients have a sustained advocate and "home base" as they meet their various needs, and community professionals are doing less intake and needs assessment which otherwise overwhelms their case loads. Furthermore, by leveraging a committed volunteer base, LIFT is able to provide all of its services at a fraction of the cost of other providers—a savings for the community at large.

View LIFT’s 2012 Impact Report to see how LIFT centers impacted families, volunteers, and communities this year.

The traditional way of combating poverty is not working.  Moreover, our country’s mainstream poverty alleviation system – our primary federal tool to combat poverty – is woefully mired in bureaucracy, red tape, and cynicism.  We urgently need to invest in innovative approaches if we are going to reverse the trend of growing suffering in our country.  Organizations, like LIFT, are working single-mindedly every day to implement these new approaches, and we have never been more committed to this work.  But if we are going to remake America as a nation of opportunity, we need an even greater collective commitment to this cause, a commitment that goes far beyond any one organization’s reach.  We need more partners, more social entrepreneurs, and more inspired private sector and political leadership focused on this issue, and we need it now.

LIFT is proud to be a part of several cross-sector collaborations to address the the issues of poverty and opportunity in the United States.  As a leader with these initiatives, LIFT seeks to promote and implement the policies and practices necessary to expand opportunity for American individuals and families-- from job creation to coordinaton of public benefits, social mobility, and more.  Additionally LIFT seeks to hold elected officials accountable to the promise of America as an opportunity society as we head into the 2012 presidential election.

OpportunityNation

OpportunityNation will change the United States of America in three specific and important ways.

First, we seek to build a national dialogue on opportunity. We believe opportunity is a core American value, and that it desperately needs to be injected into the public conversation. With commitment, intelligence, and partnership, we believe we can reenergize this public value in American discourse as a vital national goal.

Second, we seek to change policy. We will create a broad umbrella of citizens, groups, and companies that includes conservatives, moderates and progressives. Our challenge and our commitment will be to come together around a set of specific actions that will expand opportunity in America.

Finally, we seek to build a permanent broader coalition. We aim to create relationships between typical and unusual partners that last long beyond this project, and that are a platform for future endeavors to protect and extend opportunity.

We are engaging partner organizations from across the country - small and large, national and community-based - that are creating pathways out of poverty, enhancing opportunities for youth and families and building stronger communities. For more information and to get involved, visit OpportunityNation online.

Read LIFT's post on Opportunity Nation's blog: The New Approach to Combating Poverty Starts with Expanding Opportunity

Coalition to Promote Access and Opportunity

The Coalition to Promote Access and Opportunity is dedicated to alleviating poverty for millions of Americans by promoting federal, state, and local policy agendas that facilitate comprehensive, coordinated access to underutilized public benefits and related resources.  Quality employment should be the first path to financial security and well-being, but when work does not generate enough income, jobs are scarce, or employment is not an option, there should be a coordinated system of supports that is easy to understand and access, free or low-cost, provided without stigma, responsive to economic hardship, and open to all who need it.

The mission of the Coalition is to share and publicize best practices, identify federal opportunities and promote policy reforms that will strengthen the safety net by removing barriers to participating.  Our goals are to improve individuals and family financial security, to advance health and well-being, to protect against material hardship and to promote opportunity and pathways to the middle class.