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Successful Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) programs bring economic opportunity, security, and stimulation to an impacted population. Our partners, Equity and Transformation, have championed this success with their local GBI pilot program. The Chicago Future Fund is a GBI pilot program that offers $500 a month for 18 months without restrictions on how the money gets spent. While qualifications for GBI programs vary, the Chicago Future Fund requires applicants to be formerly incarcerated people aged 18-35 making less than $12,000 annually. The program's core objective is to alleviate the burdens associated with life after incarceration and enhance outcomes for formerly incarcerated individuals. In their first round, the Chicago Future Fund had 30 participants from West Garfield Park. In their Evaluation Report, EAT finds that the monetary compensation provided a vital stabilizing force in participants' lives. EAT found that participants were eager to use the funds for housing and living expenses, and it reduced overall engagement with the informal economy as 44% of participants reported a decline in participation in activities related to the informal economy. The report suggests that securing employment could be improved if GBI programs were linked to workforce development programs that could bolster participants’ job searches. As BlackRoots Alliance continues to support the safety and liberation of Black people, initiatives like GBI programs are important to build economic, social, and racial justice. The Chicago Future Fund Evaluation Report also outlines the impact on participants' interaction with police, mental health, and well-being. Conclusively, EAT finds that GBI programs should be an economic priority to address the hardships of directly impacted communities. To read more insights about the Chicago Future Fund and recommendations for future GBI programming, check out their round 1 evaluation report: Add Hashtags: #EquityandTransformation #guaranteedbasicincome https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:fdfd0ddd-439b-4787-9780-31d2a88e9b10

Here at BlackRoots Alliance we continue to be proud of the mighty ecosystem of Black women we belong to. We’re working tirelessly on numerous campaigns but the most noteworthy is reparations. We want to use Women’s History Month to uplift the work of the Black women who are the mothers of this movement. The likes of Audley “Queen Mother” Moore , Callie House , Belinda Sutton , and countless other community champions, should be given all their accolades. We have to recognize the importance of sharing the untold stories of women whose legacies have inspired change. Queen Mother nursed modern Black liberation. She embraced a vision of radical Black independence. She was able to link her struggle with that of other radicals around the world. Her pamphlet, Why Reparations? , is a call-to-action for the economic security and political freedom of more than 25 million descendants (at that time) of Black American slaves. At the time, its publishing coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, making it an relevant reflection on the impact of chattel slavery. Queen Mother also organized the Reparations Committee for United States Slaves’ Descendants, Inc., their main goal was to seek monetary compensation dispersed to descendants of Black American slaves. Callie House was a leader of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association , one of the first organizations to campaign for reparations for slavery in the United States. She organized hundreds of thousands of people calling for US reparations, building a powerful movement for which she was unjustly imprisoned in 1916 for mail fraud. Belinda Sutton was a Black woman who was enslaved by the Royalls . She’s known for her remarkable and unapologetic 1783 petition to the Massachusetts General Court, in which she recounted her life story and claimed a pension from the estate of Isaac Royall Jr. Her public assertion and the unheard of audacity to claim her rights gave her a place in history and cemented her as a heroine of reparations for American enslavement. Black women have come up with the central principles, ideas, and organizational infrastructures of reparation-based solutions since the beginning. One of the most popular reparation proposals is designed to respond to the economic gap between white and Black Americans. But this is just one approach to reparations and the exact application should be representative of the emergent needs for each individual community. Remember, Black folks aren’t a monolith and therefore reparations can’t be developed as a one-size fits all technique. You can make history too! Come join BlackRoots Alliance in continuing in the legacy of reparations by attending our virtual event on Saturday, April 13. In partnership with Equity and Transformation and a dynamic panel of predominantly Black women, we'll be diving into reparations plans for cities like ours and Evanston, Kansas City, Detroit, and South Bend!