There are numerous avenues to economic empowerment for families, particularly those from systematically disenfranchised and under-resourced communities. How can we talk about measuring economic well-being through the lens of care, justice, and power? And what, exactly, do we mean when we talk about economic empowerment?
We use economic empowerment to describe equitably allocating resources to families and communities and ending the hoarding of resources.
One of the clearest throughlines in the data around economic mobility and access to resources is that we have enough – we have enough money and enough resources in our society for everyone to not only have their needs met but thrive. The resources to build the world we envision already exist.
The question then is one of access – who has access to those resources, and more importantly, who does not and why? This is particularly important when some of the whys are policies that our elected officials can change.
Last week, TEP President Zakiya Jackson joined Advocacy and Training Associate Lena Anglin for an update on the political status of the Child Tax Credit and a broader discussion of economic empowerment and the promise of abundance.
The goal of our efforts is to build a world in which every student and neighborhood can enjoy prosperity, safety, and economic mobility in their everyday lives. We have a deep responsibility to imagine and build a world outside of constraints that restrict equitable resource access due to race and socioeconomic status. It is only then that we can ensure the needs of all children are met in abundance.
