Ready to Go!

What happens when a young adult is ready to move out and find his or her own way? What did you do? Maybe you moved on to college after high school. Maybe you worked and went to school at night. Maybe you worked, traveled, lived with friends, did a year of service or followed your favorite band.

It’s no different when young adults age out of programs for foster youth. They take many different routes, too. Like young adults of all backgrounds, they sometimes just need a hand. On the Benevolent site, we’ve had many needs posted in which we hear from a high school grad who’s about to head off to college and needs a laptop, bus or train fare to get to college, or basic dorm room furnishings -- sheets, towels and the like. 

My goal is to graduate college,
join the army, and be independent. 
I would like to attend a university
and work in the health field.

Today, though, we’ve got a need posted to the site that’s new for us. Lemia is ready to make the move from the group home she’s been living in with other older youth in the child welfare system. She’s getting her own place and she’ll live independently while she’s in school studying for a career in health care. On the Benevolent site, Lemia’s asking for help with the funds necessary to get herself situated in her new place.

Lemia doesn’t have a family basement or closet to raid for towels or kitchenware, or a folding table to borrow while she works her way towards more “real” furniture and slowly accumulates the things that make an apartment a home. I have no doubt she’ll make her place into a warm and peaceful home, but it’ll take some time and some help.

That’s where we come in. We can step in where family would have handed down the folding table from the hall closet, where the lamp no one was using would have been pulled from a box of old things and where a parent or uncle would have joined in a trip to the store and footed the bill for a few essential pieces.

We can do this for Lemia who has already beaten the odds simply by graduating high school. The stakes are even higher now. While she is one of the 70% of former foster youth with a desire to attend college, barely 5% wind up completing either a two-or four-year degree.

Some sobering facts: 50% of “aged out” foster youth are homeless within 18 months of emancipation, 25% are incarcerated within two years, 60% of these young women become mothers themselves within four years. Lemia’s got clear and impressive dreams and they bear no resemblance to those difficult statistics.

I spent a few years running group homes in Chicago and I can’t tell you how incredible each of those kids was. Every one of them had been through many foster care homes and each one had lived through situations that no child should experience. That’s where their similarities ended. They were as different from one another as kids should be and their gifts, strengths and dreams were inspiring.

I have no idea what Lemia’s seen or what she’s had to overcome to thrive. What I know is that she’s ready for what’s next and eager to get started. She’s generous enough to share her story with us, and she’s hoping we’ll believe in her. Let’s.

- megan kashner

  founder & ceo

  Benevolent

 www.benevolent.net

Teaching by Doing

Sometimes when we post a need to the site, there’s more to the situation than what shows on the surface. Elaine’s need is one of them.

In addition to taking care of her mother, Elaine has found herself raising her granddaughter. This means, clearly, that there’s been some stress and disruption in Elaine’s granddaughter’s life and that more than other kids, this young girl needs not only warm, strong, nurturing parenting -- she needs a role model actively demonstrating that learning is both important and possible, and that adults can find reward in their work.

Elaine believes it’s never too late to go to school and learn, and this is not a vague hope for her. Here’s what she told us: “... I decided I have to do something with my life, and that it’s never too late to start. I went back to culinary school last year to get a degree to work in restaurants and one day maybe even have my own business.”  Elaine needs help getting some basic supplies like sturdy shoes to allow her to stand all day, a set of knives, and a mixer that will allow her to practice at home. 

There are many factors that can help set a child up for success in adulthood, but none is as important as the people who are parenting and modeling for that child what’s possible in life and how each of us has value and unique strengths.  As she pursues her goals, Elaine models determination and success for her granddaughter and all the kids in her life.

So when we wonder what we can do to improve educational and career outcomes for children who grow up in low-income households, here’s an answer – help the adults in their lives succeed and thrive as they pursue their goals.

There’s science behind this. A 2006 study found that while learning cognitive skills in school is important to future success, noncognitive elements like motivation, perseverance and tenacity are equally important. Where do kids learn perseverance? Overwhelmingly, from the adults in their lives who model it. (Heckman 2006)

Here’s where we can make a huge difference. When we help parents (young and old) to succeed in their educational and work pursuits, we change outcomes for at least two generations. “Parents who succeed in completing additional schooling or secure a higher-paying job are likely to have children with better health, schooling, and labor market outcomes.” (Magnuson 2007)

It’s as simple as that. Elaine’s got it right. Let’s help her achieve her educational and work goals as she parents her granddaughter, and models perseverance, motivation and tenacity.

- megan kashner

  founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net 

Happy 2nd B'Day to the Benevolent Idea

The earliest visual depiction
of the Benevolent concept

Can you believe it’s been two years since I woke up with the idea for Benevolent? Yep. It was February 13^th, 2011. Hard to believe that a half-formed idea that was born on a random Sunday morning in a sleepy-headed state has blossomed into today’s Benevolent.

When I look back on my early thoughts and sketches (I really can’t draw, so I used comic software to create storyboards), I am amazed at what it’s taken to get here, what the road ahead looks like, and how many people have been and continue to be a part of Benevolent’s infancy and youth.

So today, I’d like to take a moment and pause to say “thank you.”

• Thank you to those who believed in this idea in its earliest days and encouraged me to pursue it.
• Thank you to my amazing team of staff, volunteers, pro bono do-ers and advisors, Benevolent’s board, advisory board, kitchen cabinets, and friends.
• Thank you to those visionary and trusting nonprofit partners who took a chance on this new idea when we had no track record and nothing to prove we could deliver.
• Thank you to those who have stepped up to support Benevolent’s birth and development.
• Thank you to those who came forward, eager to help someone else in this new way; and a special thanks to those who took an additional step and sent a note of encouragement to the people you were choosing to help.
• Thank you to the bravest of the brave, the determined people who shared their stories, their challenges, and their dreams with us and invited us in to be a part of their progress.

You may have noticed that we can’t seem to keep needs posted to the site these days. People out there in the world can’t believe that we’re actually in a situation where the desire of people to give is out-stripping the pace at which we can get needs up onto the site. We post them; people keep coming back to check the site and contribute; and the needs are filled. It’s a great problem to have because it shows clearly that this is a way that people are excited to give and engage. You all are pioneers in this new-fangled way of lifting our neighbors toward their goals.

Now we on the Benevolent team get to do the work necessary to get more and more needs up on the site; engage more nonprofit partners to let their clients know the help is available; and expand the model to more cities.

So what are we actually doing back here behind the Benevolent curtain? We’re working on expanding to three new cities in an intensive way over the coming months. When we expand, we’ll be focusing on forging partnerships with excellent nonprofits, learning as we go, and improving what we do so that it’s easier and easier for everyone to engage – nonprofits, people who are facing challenges, and people who want to give.

For now, then, know that we’re here in the Chicago area, working on hiring excellent people, raising essential money, and making critical improvements so that we can achieve our dream of becoming national and providing a resource to allow people to connect, give and get help in ways that they couldn’t before.

Thanks for believing in us and thanks to all those who have been a part of making the first two years of the Benevolent concept so groundbreaking and thrilling.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net

Not the Stereotype

This weekend, I had an interesting Facebook interchange with a friend from high school about the availability of jobs and what constitutes a living wage. What I found distressing about our conversation was not our disparate points of view, but rather the persistence of negative stereotypes of low-income families across the political spectrum.

Every time I think we’ve moved beyond the presumptions that the majority of low-income adults mis-spend money on lavish luxury goods, that presumption rears its head. I don’t know which families my friend has been encountering, but when I look at the Benevolent recipients and their families, I see people who are striving to reach new goals, working hard to make ends meet, and trying hard to hold on to the things that matter.

Here at Benevolent, we look at things person-by-person; moving past stereotypes to learn the stories behind the people. Al was homeless and unemployed. He’s now working as a waiter. Al’s not aspiring to luxury purchases, simply to self-sufficiency.

Christina was a low-wage worker when she worked in after-school programs. Now she’s employed as a nurse - a profession that promises a better future for her and her family. Christina's family scrimped and saved to support her as she completed nursing school and those sacrifices paid off.

Behind all the statistics, there are faces, stories, families. Some are success stories like Al and Christina and others continue to struggle to gain and maintain their footing. At Benevolent, our mission to is to help low-income adults over their hurdles along the way towards their goals. We’d also like to be a part of the growing chorus of voices countering negative stereotypes with the real stories of real people who inspire us.

Al’s not sporting $200 gym shoes and Christina’s kids won’t be heading off to school with iPhones this school year. These families are working hard, reaching for their goals, and overcoming challenges many of us can’t imagine.

So, this Labor Day, I want to honor Al, Christina, Bridgett, and all the success stories on the Benevolent site. Thank you for sharing your journeys with us and for providing us all with proof positive that those negative presumptions about low-income families are the exception, not the rule.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net

Bugged

Ever wonder why we post needs for furniture on the Benevolent site? If you’re anything like me, when you moved into your first apartment, you made several trips to local thrift stores to find things like upholstered chairs, recliners, padded kitchen chairs, and couches. It might not have looked like a million dollars, but it served the purpose and it made our apartments feel like home.

Maria “has been sharing a two-bedroom mobile house with her two sisters, their five children, her stepfather and her mother,” says Sizzy West, Maria’s Home Visitor.  Now this young mom has succeeded in moving herself and her daughter into their own apartment and seeks our help in getting the funds she needs to buy furniture for her first-ever living room.  We might wonder why she needs to buy it new, rather than at a thrift store.

There is one simple answer: the reality of bed bugs. No, Maria does NOT have bed bugs, but they are the reason she can’t buy upholstered furniture from a thrift store.

Chicago has been one of the nation’s top cities in bed bug infestation in the last few years – not an honor we relish. Whenever we hear news stories or read articles about how to protect ourselves from bed bugs, they inevitably contain a sentence like this one from Dateline on NBC:

“Do not buy used furniture (especially bedding items or upholstered items), or at least do not bring them into your home until you, or a competent expert, have inspected them carefully for any signs of bed bugs.”

For a struggling earner, this turns the furnishing of a new apartment into a significant expense. It’s no longer a safe option for someone in a situation like Maria’s to purchase a couch from the local thrift store or to accept a contributed or hand-me-down mattress or padded chair.

Nonprofits that might once have accepted donations of furniture to help their newly-housed clients settle in have entirely stopped accepting these contributions. One news story reported: “Most agencies no longer accept donated beds or mattresses to resell or provide to clients in need.” So for Maria new furniture is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

It would be easy for us to misunderstand someone who, like Maria, asks for help with furniture, and to quietly doubt the validity of her need without speaking up and questioning it. Things have really changed since I bought those tattered green armchairs and that well-worn brown couch back in the 1990s.

This is yet another example of the ways in which the small things can make a big difference.

- megan kashner

  founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net

We are the Donors, my friends

We, who give less than $200 a pop make up over 87% of all those individuals who give to charitable organizations each year. We’re the ones who make an impact, fuel services and supports and make things happen.

No one names a building or a brick after us. Our gifts don’t buy us influence in a political campaign – not as individuals, anyway. We’re certainly not the ones who give big in order to cover over a public gaffe. 

"I promise I will be the 

best  waiter this city has 

ever  seen. I will never 

forget what  you have done 

for me." - Al 

We give what we can, whenever we can, because we want to help someone. As it happens, we 87% are fueling the bulk of the change that happens for people across our country and beyond.

Where’s our ribbon-cutting ceremony, then? The newspaper piece about the incredible gift we just gave? Well, I guess our props come differently.

“I want to express my appreciation 

for your generosity in supporting 

me with the certifications.” 

- Christina

Not only are we – with our small gifts -- the major driver behind social impact in this country, but we’re also in it for a great reason: We want to transform someone’s life. The reward we want for our good work comes to us in the form of a note from Al telling us that he’s gotten the job he wanted as a banquet waiter and that thanks to us, he’s got the uniform he needs to start work.

We get excited when we see the photo of Christina with her nursing certification certificate or the video Bridgett sent us thanking us for her winter clothes for her commute to school and letting us know that she’s graduated. 

I’m pleased and proud to stand with you as a regular ol’ donor and to step up to claim our place at the head of social change in our country.

- megan kashner

  founder & ceo

  Benevolent

 www.benevolent.net

Only 2% Make It - We Can Help

Amayah is a teen mom
headed off to college this fall

She came to the US five years ago, when she was about 12. She made her way through a new country, culture, school system, and more. Now she's headed off to Southern Illinois University in the fall, full of promise and expectations.

The American Dream: believing in yourself; overcoming expectations and obstacles; succeeding through hard work. Amayah is all that, and more.

Amayah is also a teen mom. She's nothing like the flashy and combative young moms we see on reality TV. She’s the real deal - the young woman who had a child at 16, kept on going to school, is graduating and is heading to college without missing a beat. She's got her future in clear focus, and she's got her baby's future in mind as well - a balancing act that many parents decades older than Amayah have not mastered.

Right now, though -- this is when it gets hard. Amayah has challenges to face as she heads off to college that the other young students won't be burdened by. She'll need to find housing suitable to a small family, child care, and time to cook for, read to, play with, and care for her child. She'll have to plan her course schedule and her study groups around her child's timetable and then there will be other things that crop up - a babysitter bailing, her child getting a fever, or the stroller refusing to open.

Amayah is asking the Benevolent community for help with one singular challenge: for help paying her housing deposit and getting her apartment set up for herself and her child. I hope we'll meet this challenge and step up for Amayah. More importantly, I hope we'll be able to jump back in future years if another big challenge pops up. Maybe create a community of support just for Amayah. 

On average, about half of all teen moms finish high school. Another 15% will get their GED by the time they're 22. Only two percent - 2% - of teen moms complete college by the time they're 30. Those are ridiculously long odds. 

Let's step up, step in and become a part of Amayah's story, and let's hang out there for a while to keep an eye on her success and be there when she needs us.

Who's in?

- megan kashner, founder & CEO

Reduce Poverty and Improve Health

I was doing some online research this weekend, looking for cite-able sources about the connection between improvements in people’s socioeconomic status and their health outcomes when I stumbled across a piece of scholarship I simply had to share with you.

Many of us might not know a great deal about Thomas Frieden, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Frieden is responsible for providing the expertise and tools that people and communities need to protect their health.

Turns out, the guy is incredible – has turned the CDC around, shedding bureaucracy and replacing it with action and efficiency. He also happens to be the author of the brilliant piece I found in my searches yesterday: “A Framework for Public Health Action: The Health Impact Pyramid.”

So what was so brilliant about this article? Frieden clearly lays out the reality that “addressing socioeconomic factors has the greatest potential to improve health.”

Did you get that? The thing that we can do as a society to best improve health and health outcomes as a nation will be to reduce poverty which Frieden tells us will:

• Improve immunity

• Reduce crowding and exposure to communicable microbes

• Improve nutrition, sanitation and housing options

• Increase educational levels, and nutritional options

• Reduce cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and diabetes

• Reduce drug use and violence

• and Lower vulnerability to extreme weather conditions.

Well, ok then. We’re done. We’ve solved it. All we need to do is to reduce poverty and improve baseline socioeconomic status. Let’s all get on that.

Actually, we’re already on it. You’re already on it. Each need we meet on the Benevolent site is bringing that person – and his or her family – one step closer to economic stability and sustainability. Each time you read and share one individual’s story of striving, you’re meeting and introducing others to the real people behind the numbers and maybe, just maybe, we’ll build momentum to change the conversation about policies and supports.

So, next time you hear a conversation about health care in our country, or about entitlement programs or funding for safety net supports, remember that those are actually the same conversation. We cannot continue to put low-income families in impossible situations and expect them to succeed with less and less of a foundation from which to build.

We cannot hope to see improved health, decreased obesity, drops in diabetes and heart disease rates, or drop-offs in community violence until we address the underlying reality. It’s about poverty. It’s about resources. It’s about how our civic constructs promote or inhibit people’s progress towards their goals and out of hardship and risk.

Thanks to each of you for being part of the solution. Remember to share the stories of striving and challenge you see on the Benevolent site out to your friends and family over Facebook, through email, etc. The more we introduce people to the real people impacted by low-income and hurdles to taking their steps towards stability, the more we change people’s understanding of the issues, needs, and constructs surrounding poverty in our country.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

When the Bough Breaks

For many years, our nation’s public libraries have been providing more than books. After-school homework help, computer access for students and job searchers, preschool and adult literacy programming, shelter for those in need, and more have been provided in libraries and by their professional staff for decades.

In the current state of municipal budget shortfalls, many cities and towns have decided to cut library branches and decrease library hours to cut costs. Like the removal of any public service, the loss of library access has an impact on many people. It is a tear in the social safety net.

We know that school kids, job seekers, shelter-seekers, and learners of all ages were impacted when the City of Chicago implemented $3M in budget cuts in January of this year, cutting 172 low-wage library jobs and closing 75 branch libraries on Mondays. The community lost access to critical services and 172 people lost their jobs as clerks and pages in the Chicago library system.

Rufus was one of those who lost a job in the Chicago Public Libraries this winter. Now he’s asking for help with the funds necessary to purchase the right-sized car seat for his infant son and to buy his son books and toys, as he would have been able to do had he not lost his job.

I am not arguing here for or against curtailing library hours or jobs. Cuts had to be made in the city’s budget. If those funds had instead been pulled out of our public transit system or out of violence-prevention programs, we would see similar tears in the fabric of support and resources for those living close to the economic edge.

I wonder whether schoolteachers are now finding that their students cannot be expected to complete homework on Monday evenings because they can’t access after-school homework help or get onto a computer to complete their assignments. I wonder whether public transit stations, malls, fast food restaurants, and the like are feeling the strain of the volume of people who might otherwise have been reading, taking shelter in or attending programs at public libraries and who are now at loose ends on Mondays.

We can see in Rufus’ situation that the low-wage positions of clerk and page in a library system were not sufficient to provide these earners with any sort of a financial cushion. Less than three months into unemployment, Rufus tells us of near-homelessness and an inability to purchase basic supplies for his son.

This is where you see clearly the multi-generational effect of the fragility of our safety net. When Rufus lost his job, his son’s potential future earnings dropped along with his father’s. While we hope that Rufus and his son prove to be the exception to this rule, research and history tell us that children whose parents are low-income earners are exponentially more likely to be fixed in the same socio-economic status as their parents.

Rufus was on his way to a career path and stability in earnings. We hope he’ll get right back on track, but in today’s job market, that is going to be a challenge. In fact, we know from research cited in the Chicago Tribune last week that within Rufus’ age group, his chances of being rehired within 18 months of losing his job are approximately 77% (down from 89% before the recession) and that he’s likely to be hired at a wage 11% lower than the wage of the job he lost. This has implications for Rufus and for his son’s safety and development.

When we step up and help Rufus’s son during his dad’s jobless patch, or when we help Brenda get a computer so that she can complete her training in Radiology and her son can apply to colleges, we’re alleviating the human impact of cuts and shortfalls and addressing two generations’ needs. We’re fixing the holes when the social safety net has stretched to the breaking point. We’re doing it because we can see and hear Rufus and Brenda and we can be there to tighten the weave under them at a critical moment.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo