In Her Hands calls for up to 650 Black women to get the money with no conditions for two years. It aims to better their financial stability, mental health, and combat the racial wealth gap, per The Huffington Post.
Rolling out early next year and slated to distribute $13 million, the plan is supposedly set to be one of the largest such programs in America.
According to The Huffington Post, the program is purposely being started in Atlanta, a city with some of the most pronounced income inequality in the country. Expected to be launched first in the city’s Old Fourth Ward in early 2022, it will expand to at least two more sites in Southwest Georgia and the Metro Atlanta suburbs.
The funding is perhaps vital as the median Black family in the U.S. owns $3,600 in wealth, just about 2% of the $147,000 that the median White family owns, based on 2019 research from the Institute for Policy Studies. In Georgia, about 26% of Black women live in poverty, versus 14% of White women.
Furthermore, Black women have been hit excessively hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and its related pandemic economic crisis, making them more likely than other groups to face job loss and eviction. Overall, Black people in the U.S. have endured higher rates of hospitalization and death from COVID than Whites.
“Black women are
among the most likely groups 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 impacts on women and communities of color,” Hope Wollensack, executive director of the GRO Fund, said. “Guaranteed income is a step toward creating a more just and equitable economy.”Gain more details about the fresh program here.