Just over a year ago, the Urban Institute convened its first meeting of mobility stakeholders, a group of people from 12 peer organizations, to explore common themes and discuss shared challenges emerging from their work to boost upward mobility. Out of conversations on power shifting, community-informed data, and the principles of implementation, one topic held sway: systems change.
The Upward Mobility Cohort’s Mobility Action Plans (MAPs) resemble municipal plans in that they reflect a vision for a community’s future and include a roadmap to get there. Achieving that vision in a lasting manner can be difficult, but sustainability is key to systems change.
The COVID-19 pandemic not only affected city, county, and state governments’ ability to function and deliver services, but it also had a devastating impact on their communities.
As the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Cohort of eight counties begin to draft their Mobility Action Plans (MAPs), we want to highlight the great work they’re doing to gather their plans’ necessary components. This month, we’re featuring the City of Philadelphia, which has been thoughtful about how data will feature prominently in its MAP’s recommendations.
The Urban Institute’s Boosting Upward Mobility cohort counties have adopted various methods, including convening advisory boards and conducting focus groups, to hear residents’ thoughts on what needs to change to help lift people out of poverty in their communities. In St. Lucie County, Florida, leaders opted for a community engaged research approach called a data walk.