Of Compton’s 100,000 residents, of whom 30% are Black and 68% are Latinx, 1 in 5 live below the poverty line—a reality perpetuated by discriminatory social services and tax laws that consistently provide fewer resources to communities of color. In the fallout of the pandemic, outdated infrastructure and the unmet demand for emergency assistance exposed the failure of today’s safety net. Inequitable relief efforts have disproportionately harmed residents who are excluded from welfare and economic systems, such as our undocumented, formerly incarcerated, and unbanked neighbors.

As a global reckoning over economic and racial injustice grew during the summer of 2020, so did calls for guaranteed income.

Enter the Compton Pledge: a two-year initiative delivering between $300-600 a month to 800 families.

Authentic partnerships and community trust drive outcomes. That’s why we worked with city leaders and a community advisory council to secure funding, leverage local expertise, and build political will. To ensure a successful, inclusive program, we worked with residents, pastors, educators and heads of nonprofits to co-design our payments platform and inform every stage of program implementation, from enrollment to customer service.

The F4GI team established a safe place for participants to choose when and who told their stories. The Voices of Compton Pledge (VOCP) storytelling cohort was a 100% volunteer opportunity for residents to share lived experiences. The VOCP members helped organize local community resource fairs and became a connected community outside of the program.

Guaranteeing economic justice means dismantling barriers. Here’s how the pledge to people’s power stands apart:

The Compton Pledge is a model for future programs in the fight for economic opportunity for all.

To ensure we transform our learnings into actionable data, an independent, randomized control trial is underway to examine the following outcomes: child education, food security, health care, savings, work hours, time use, and spending. It will be one of the first long-term evaluations in a developed country, addressing unanswered policy questions around the ideal timing and mechanisms of payments.