We are meant for more
More than just surviving.
More than uncertainty.
More than just accepting the status quo.
The Alliance for Opportunity is a coalition that works with state and federal leaders to transform the safety net from a fragmented system that merely manages poverty into an integrated system that restores work opportunity, family stability, dignity, and upward mobility.
Current safety-net programs too often discourage recipients from achieving long-term self-sufficiency, but a new holistic approach would help recipients achieve this with existing resources.
U.S. safety nets are not set up for Americans in poverty to achieve self-sufficiency and thriving. To address the causes of poverty, policymakers should realign our safety-net programs to better connect people to work.
Our fellow citizens deserve an efficient, user-friendly, less time-consuming safety-net system that addresses their needs more holistically. The failure of government-run welfare programs to efficiently move work-capable recipients to self-sufficiency traps citizens in poverty.
Encouraging economic growth to ensure a robust economy may do more than any other policy to reduce demand for safety-net programs. However, we must have a workforce prepared to benefit from the jobs created.
Over the past four decades, the U.S. has expanded the criminal justice system, making it more punitive and relying on incarceration as the default response to crime. Now, the U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.