Boosting Upward Mobility: A Planning Guide for Local Action (Step 5)
  • 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 5: Develop an Initial Understanding of Local Mobility Conditions

    Now that the Mobility Coalition has been assembled and launched, it is time to begin building a shared understanding of local mobility conditions among the group. Pairing the Mobility Metrics—which provide a surface-level understanding of issues—with supplementary local data and information (such as administrative data, historical records, inventories of current action, or survey data) and qualitative insights from your community can help you identify the causes underlying the problems and successes you witness or diagnose.

    Before you consider what strategic actions can address poverty and racial inequities in your community, you must first create a comprehensive set of insights about the conditions blocking mobility from poverty and equity in your community. This section will guide you through the steps to developing the Summary of Upward Mobility Findings section of your Mobility Action Plan. The Summary of Upward Mobility Findings should holistically address local challenges to upward mobility and equity, requiring a comprehensive approach that

    • reflects the three-part definition of mobility from poverty, including economic success, power and autonomy, and being valued in community;
    • centers racial equity and engages impacted communities in decisionmaking;
    • uses continuous learning and improvement practices to assess progress, improve organizational practices and services, and drive better outcomes; and
    • is thoughtful about the interconnections of multiple policy issues reflected in the predictors.

    Understanding local mobility conditions is an iterative process that may involve multiple cycles of working internally as a Mobility Coalition and engaging with external stakeholders. We encourage you to regularly revisit the activities from this step throughout the Mobility Action Planning process to continually refine your analysis. You can see examples of the Summary of Upward Mobility Findings from our Upward Mobility Cohort here: https://upward-mobility.urban.org/mobility-action-plans.

    Supplemental resources


    Access the supplemental resources referenced as part of the Step 5 PDF:
    • Preparing for Your Mobility Metrics Coalition Meeting
    • Sample Agenda to Determine Next Steps for Data Collection