In Her Hands

“The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain…” - Dr. Martin Luther King, 1967

In Her Hands is a guaranteed income initiative focused on putting a solution to financial insecurity directly in the hands of women in Georgia. No strings attached. 

The gap between dwindling paychecks and making ends meet for Black women has historically been larger and deeper than most other populations. Though people are incredibly resilient and resourceful with what they have, Black women are among the most likely group to experience cash shortfalls that make covering basic needs difficult. This isn’t the result of poor choices, it’s the result of pervasive economic insecurity that has the sharpest impact on women and communities of color and the people who live at the intersection of the two.

Formed through direct community input, In Her Hands will provide an average of $850 per month for 24 months to 650 women in three communities in Georgia. This $13 million initiative, powered by a partnership with the GRO Fund and GiveDirectly is already one of the largest guaranteed income programs in the South, a region where women of color face significant structural barriers to economic security and wealth-building.

The first location to participate in the initiative will be in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, the neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., grew up and later preached about guaranteed income. The second location to participate is Southwest Georgia’s Clay-Randolph-Terrell county cluster while the third location is the City of College Park.

Why cash?

We are disrupting “business as usual” by promoting assistance that is direct, flexible, dignified, and specifically focused on improving the financial health of Black women.

 

Choice.

Existing social safety nets often make it difficult for individuals to obtain assistance. Strict eligibility criteria, indirect or insufficient aid, and bureaucratic obstacles make it difficult for families to get the support that meets their needs when they need it most.

Flexibility.

These systems are also exclusionary by design, requiring individuals to jump through hoops to prove they are worthy of assistance. The stakes are particularly high for marginalized communities, due to the dominant narrative that poverty is a consequence of individual choices rather than structural barriers.

Stability.

We expect participants will be able to spend more on health costs for themselves and their families, pay down debt, and reduce caretaking burdens and trade-offs, which will, in turn, allow them to build income stability and economic security.

FAQs

  • Black women face more economic insecurity as a result of systemic barriers like pay inequality and fewer economic buffers than nearly any other demographic in Georgia. Black women earn $0.63 on the dollar to white men in Georgia, and 38% of Black women in the Old 4th Ward of Atlanta live in poverty, compared to 26% of Black men and 8% of white women. Black women in Georgia also face uniquely high barriers to wealth creation. Many act as primary caretakers, and must deprioritize health costs or take on debt to cover their family’s basic needs. While people and communities are incredibly resilient and resourceful, Black women are among the most likely group to experience cash shortfalls that make covering basic needs difficult.

    We use "women" as an expansive term inclusive of both transgender and cisgender women. Our program is also open to non-binary individuals who wish to participate.

  • Direct, no-strings-attached cash allows individuals and families to invest in what they need — from providing for basic needs, to keeping a roof over their heads, to paying for medical care, to investing in their family and future — and maintain agency over their lives while doing so.

  • The GRO Fund model has been developed in coalition with community members, through a 28-member task force, community survey, and listening sessions with local residents in each of the project locations. Members of the community helped to determine key aspects of the project design, from the duration to the cash transfer schedule.

  • A universal basic income (UBI) is regular cash assistance given to an entire population that provides for a subsistence level of money. For example, GiveDirectly’s UBI study in Kenya provides entire rural villages with monthly payments of ~$25. A guaranteed income is regular cash assistance that is not universal, but targeted at a particular demographic or income level, like this project. Although we are aiming to support a large number of families with significant income stabilization, we also recognize our cash disbursements may not be large enough to fully cover every family’s basic needs.

  • Yes - applications for our third location, the City of College Park, open on Monday, August 8, 2022.

  • On the whole, the communities we spoke with reported knowing how to budget and make sound financial decisions for their families. However, many struggle to save money and build wealth on a month-to-month basis because of the instability, insufficiency, and volatility of their income.

    It doesn’t matter how well you can budget when your income consistently lags behind the cost of providing for basic needs for yourself and your family. Conversations with community experts did not identify financial literacy as a core challenge among our prospective recipients. Community members identified recurring cash relief as a key tool to get them “off the hamster wheel” of persistent debt.

  • Community-based organizations, policy advocates, and government leaders across the U.S. and other countries are increasingly pointing to guaranteed income as a policy that can make a significant impact in people’s lives. We hope to add to this conversation by studying how guaranteed income can particularly benefit Black women — a population in Georgia that has historically faced disproportionate structural barriers at the intersection of both gender and racial wealth gaps.

    The research component of this project will be led by Dr. Leah Hamilton at Appalachian State University and is specifically designed to help us understand the mechanisms by which cash can improve women’s lives and wellbeing.

“When that stimulus check hit for people, it was like the Earth was singing. There was no angry vibe in the ear — it used to be so tense you could cut the air with a knife. That’s because when people are broke and you need to eat or pay a bill and you don’t have it, some people are ready to do desperate things.”

— Mary Deloise Raven, Old Fourth Ward resident