Rise Up Cambridge and economic mobility

CCF has focused on the growing economic disparities in Cambridge for years, through CCF’s research, long-time investments to support vulnerable populations through our Community Fund, and more recently through guaranteed income programs driven by strong partnerships. This work informed the economic mobility pieces of our strategic plan, which takes a two-generation approach to move families from crisis to stability to mobility.

Rise Up Cambridge and guaranteed income

Rise Up Cambridge, our city’s scaled $22-million cash assistance program funded by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), is providing monthly cash assistance to every qualifying family with children. Cambridge is the first US city to offer a non-lottery cash assistance program of this kind.

Created in partnership with the City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee (CEOC), and the Foundation, Rise Up Cambridge is a great example of how partnerships can grow solutions to big problems.

Rise Up Cambridge grew out of Cambridge RISE, a $1.6 million, philanthropically funded guaranteed income pilot that provided $500/month for 130 single caregiver households with children in Cambridge. The pilot was led by former Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, in partnership with Vice-Mayor Alanna Mallon, City Councillor Marc McGovern, the Cambridge Community Foundation, CEOC, Just A Start, UpTogether, Cambridge Housing Authority, and many amazing donors, including lead support from Harvard and MIT. Released in March 2024, results from an independent research study of Cambridge RISE from Center for Guaranteed Income Research at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice found that despite the pandemic-related stressors and inflation, as well as the associated increased cost of living, participants benefited from guaranteed income in several ways.

Economic mobility research

Our original research, Boom Town/Hometown (2017), Equity & Innovation Cities (2021), and Cash Empowers (2023), consistently points to Cambridge’s persistent wealth disparities and economic inequities. Data from Cash Empowers revealed ongoing pressures low-income families are facing in a city whose cost of living is 73 percent higher than the national average:

Just over 60 percent of Cambridge’s Black and African American families with children make half or less of what the Economic Policy Institute considers a living wage.

The median income of single mothers is $29,000—just 15 percent of the $191,000 citywide median for married couples with kids.

More than half of the people in eligible families are 21 or younger, with the largest share under age 12. That’s nearly 4,000 Cambridge children whose circumstances make it hard for them to live up to their potential and become thriving members of the community.

Growing our economic mobility work

The Foundation’s five-year strategic plan, launched in October 2023, grows out of our research, ongoing work, and partnerships like Rise Up Cambridge. The strategic plan is aimed at reducing economic disparities and strengthening community bonds to guarantee the future success of Cambridge. Economic mobility and social cohesion are the two key pillars of this work and are inextricably linked. Economic mobility is impossible without deep connections among people to advocate for themselves and others, and social cohesion is impossible without a path forward for the most vulnerable among us. The guaranteed income work informed our economic mobility strategy, which takes a two-generation approach to move families from crisis to stability to mobility. Strong cross-sector partnerships are essential to this work.