Closing America’s opportunity divide and finding cross-sector solutions to increase economic mobility, especially for low-income Americans, is a signal challenge for our country. Our Working Up project set out to tackle this challenge with a focus on finding recommendations to increase upward mobility through work that can be implemented through innovations, partnerships, the private sector, smart public policy, and all of us working together.
Convergence convened a group of leaders and experts including major employers, worker advocates, right- and left-leaning think tanks and advocacy groups, innovative non-profit service providers, higher education and philanthropy. While no stakeholder group of this size can lift up every perspective, our table includes remarkable diversity across race and gender, sector representation, lived experience, policy thinkers and on-the-ground doers. After two years of dialogue, research, shared learning, and listening sessions with Americans facing barriers to opportunity, we created a shared work product with a range of ideas.
This report includes principles linking work and economic mobility; key challenges facing lower income workers; a framework to meet those challenges; and specific proposals for action. We call for the design and implementation of these solutions to include the voices and lived experience of low-income individuals and families. Going forward, our group and others will be taking action to promote and implement these ideas.
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