Boosting Upward Mobility: A Planning Guide for Local Action (Step 1)
  • Project Home
  • Step 1: Our Approach to Upward Mobility
  • Step 2: Use Mobility Metrics to Surface Insights
  • Step 3: Ensure Your Local Government Is Ready to Undertake This Work
  • Step 4: Build Your Coalition for Systems Change
  • Step 5: Develop an Initial Understanding of Local Mobility Conditions
  • Step 6: Build a Fuller Picture of Mobility Conditions in Your Community
  • Step 7: Determine Your Strategic Actions
  • Step 8: Develop Your Measurement Plan and Consider Sustainability
  • Step 9: Finalize and Release Your Mobility Action Plan
  • Step 10: Sustain Momentum
  • Acknowledgements

    • Step 1: Learn about Our Approach to Boosting Mobility and Advancing Equity

    The first step in the Mobility Action Planning process is familiarizing yourself with our approach, which includes three main elements: (1) the Framework for Boosting Mobility and Advancing Equity—the core knowledge base around which this work is focused—which (a) presents key pillars and predictors of upward mobility and a broad definition of mobility that includes measures of economic success, power and autonomy, and belonging and (b) centers racial equity; (2) planning principles that will help you and your team stay focused on critical aspects of boosting upward mobility; and (3) recommendations for a set of actors to engage in order to develop a full and nuanced understanding of barriers to mobility and identify the right solutions for overcoming those barriers.

    Having a shared approach helps focus and strengthen collective action for boosting mobility from poverty and advancing equity. Throughout this guide, we will help you harness and apply our approach to your Mobility Action Planning. This approach will help you

    • champion evidence-informed systems change that will remove barriers blocking upward mobility and equity;
    • engage partners who are committed to this work for the long haul;
    • change the narrative on poverty in your community;
    • identify a set of comprehensive solutions that respond to the root causes of inequities and the full range of a community’s needs and assets;
    • build your and your partners’ capacity to track progress over time and adjust your work as needed; and
    • stay focused on your goals and hold yourself and your partners accountable for action.
    Figure 1: Our Approach for Boosting Mobility and Advancing Equity 
    Figure 1: Our Approach for Boosting Mobility and Advancing Equity.