LIFT’s mission is to combat poverty and expand opportunity for all people in the United States.
Kirsten Lodal and Brian Kreiter founded LIFT in the fall of 1998 while students at Yale University. Having been very involved as volunteers in various child services programs, they were struck by the absence of services for the parents of the children in those programs—parents who were often working multiple low-wage jobs, paying their taxes, and sending their kids to school, yet still unable to afford sustained shelter, food, and clothing for their children. They developed the idea of establishing a single center within a neighborhood where families could receive assistance from trained volunteers across a spectrum of social services, including finding jobs, securing housing, obtaining public benefits, and making connections with other social service agencies.
LIFT envisions a day when all people in our country will have the opportunity to achieve economic independence and pursue their aspirations. LIFT currently runs centers staffed by trained volunteers in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, to serve low-income individuals and families.
LIFT clients and volunteers work one-on-one to find jobs, secure safe and stable housing, make ends meet through public benefits and tax credits, and obtain quality referrals for services like childcare and healthcare. Since LIFT’s founding, over 6,000 volunteers have served more than 40,000 individuals and families. By 2014, our goal is that 10,000 LIFT volunteers will have advanced 100,000 clients on their path toward economic security and personal success.
More than 43 million Americans—one in seven individuals—live below the poverty line. According to the federal poverty measure, a family of four is considered below the poverty line if it earns less than $22,050 a year. This translates into an average of $15 per person per day to cover all needs, from food and bus fare to doctor’s appointments and utility bills. The implausibility of living on this amount of money in America today is alarming, but even more concerning is the reality that the number of Americans living in poverty have and will significantly—and precipitously—grow in the coming months and years as the economic downturn is fully realized.
Poverty is a complex and multi-faceted problem and all of its associated issues—unemployment, homelessness, hunger, illiteracy, health care costs, and more—are interlinked. Yet our social services system does not reflect this reality. In order to secure needed resources, poor families must navigate highly complex and confusing bureaucracies, making access to basic services and benefits challenging.
Get Involved:
Make a donation to LIFT.
Volunteer at a LIFT local office.
LIFT clients and volunteers work one-on-one to find jobs, secure safe and stable housing, make ends meet through public benefits and tax credits, and obtain quality referrals for services like childcare and healthcare. Since LIFT’s founding, over 6,000 volunteers have served more than 40,000 individuals and families. By 2014, our goal is that 10,000 LIFT volunteers will have advanced 100,000 clients on their path toward economic security and personal success.
More than 43 million Americans—one in seven individuals—live below the poverty line. According to the federal poverty measure, a family of four is considered below the poverty line if it earns less than $22,050 a year. This translates into an average of $15 per person per day to cover all needs, from food and bus fare to doctor’s appointments and utility bills. The implausibility of living on this amount of money in America today is alarming, but even more concerning is the reality that the number of Americans living in poverty have and will significantly—and precipitously—grow in the coming months and years as the economic downturn is fully realized.
Poverty is a complex and multi-faceted problem and all of its associated issues—unemployment, homelessness, hunger, illiteracy, health care costs, and more—are interlinked. Yet our social services system does not reflect this reality. In order to secure needed resources, poor families must navigate highly complex and confusing bureaucracies, making access to basic services and benefits challenging.
Get Involved:
Make a donation to LIFT.
Volunteer at a LIFT local office.
Find One Way Every Day on Facebook.
Help me spread the word about One Way Every Day. LIKE me on Facebook!
Source: http://www.liftcommunities.org/
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