It’s Year Two of Steelcase Foundations’ 10-year, $10 million research project, “Investment in Families Initiative.” It supports 30 black and Latina mothers in Kent County through monthly cash payments and comprehensive support. Dr. Anissa Eddie is a director with the project.
“We're really looking at their economic well-being, their social emotional well-being, and just generally how they're feeling when they engage with systems every day. And through that learning, we're seeing how systems behave in ways that hinder families and family well-being and opportunities for how they might change to better support them.”
Year Two results showed gains in financial stability. Food security jumped from 50% to 83, on-time utility payments improved and more mothers reported being able to handle an unexpected $1,000 emergency.
“One car issue or one appliance breakdown can really spiral families when they're on the tight budget. And so seeing those kind of everyday improvements in their financial and economic well-being is really encouraging.”
However, rising living costs created challenges. Inflation pushed debt-related stress to 55% from 40 in Year One with evictions rising from 7% to 14.
“That debt stress is going back up and families are feeling those budget tightenings, even with this extra support. Because the cost of living has risen so drastically in such a short amount of time.”
In the next phase, leaders will focus their advocacy on three core priorities: fair tax policy, public assistance reform and expanded housing support.
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