Happy New Year Thought Partners
We have begun 2016 with a bang! Our first week back from the end of year holiday season presented us with a lot of catch up work and we apologize for the delay in our newsletter.
Our last Thought Partner Convening was on January 7th. If I have to describe the meeting, I would say it was electric! There was so much energy and sharing in the room as we finalized our systems work. Reflecting back on 2015, we have done monumental work in shaping a blueprint for impacting poverty. We've co-created a vision for poverty, identified a poverty outcome framework and developed guiding principles. We've had great discussion around the issues of poverty, equity, racism and reviewed and analyzed a great deal of data. We all agreed that poverty is a complex issue that requires a systems change approach that not only stabilizes the symptoms of poverty faced by our community, but creates pathways to prosperity for generations to come.
Next steps include presenting the draft blueprint to our Community Impact Committee and our Board of Trustees for input on January 14th and 27th. We will reconvene the Thought Partners at a later date to present the next steps in our transformative work.
On a similar note, I want to remind everyone that the ALICE Report will be live on January 27th. The ALICE Report is a collective research study by 11 United Ways in Louisiana on the state of ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). ALICE represents the growing number of individuals and families who are working but are unable to afford the basic necessities of housing, food, childcare, health care and transportation. They earn above the federal poverty level, but can't seem to make ends meet. You will soon receive an invitation to a briefing of the report on January 27th. Hopefully you can make this.
A HUGE THANK YOU for all of your hard work, contributions, and dedication to what we know will be a significant step toward reducing poverty in our community.
