The Urban Institute is collaborating with a group of eight counties across the country as they develop a plan for increasing upward mobility and racial equity in their communities. Each county is using a set of evidence-based metrics developed by Urban and a scholarly working group to measure their efforts to increase mobility from poverty. The counties can use the metrics to

• compare their community’s progress to neighboring communities and build public support for tackling mobility;
• prioritize where their community needs to focus its attention to have the greatest impact on upward mobility;
• spotlight how predictive factors that influence upward mobility intersect with multiple policy domains to identify the different roles local and state changemakers can play;
• set targets for advancing upward mobility and racial equity as part of local and state investments, policies, and practices; and
• assess their community’s progress over time and hold local stakeholders accountable.

This site gives you the opportunity to follow and learn from the Boosting Upward Mobility project participants’ efforts. You can also dig into the evidence behind the mobility metrics Urban identified and will continue to refine as we learn from and with the cohort counties.

If you’re primarily interested in the research underpinning the project, we recommend visiting our Evidence Resource Library, reading our publications, and spending time with the mobility metrics framework. And if you’re curious about implementation, be sure to consult our framework, county profiles, and blog for insights on what boosting upward mobility looks like in practice. Below is a brief overview of each section to guide you as you navigate this site.

Metrics and Evidence

Here is where you can dive into our mobility metrics framework, which reflects the conditions within a community that profoundly shape people’s opportunity to achieve mobility from poverty. The framework outlines

• the three interconnected, mutually reinforcing dimensions that define meaningful and sustainable mobility from poverty;
• the three key drivers that propel people up and out of poverty; and
• 25 evidence-based factors that predict mobility from poverty and the corresponding metrics a community can use to assess its efforts to help improve the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. 

See the framework.

Evidence Resource Library

This is the hub for the evidence about the predictive factors—such as income, housing stability, and access to transportation—that influence upward mobility over the course of people’s and families’ lives. Our resource library explains each predictive factor, how it affects people’s lives, and how local and state actors can address and improve the predictor to boost upward mobility. Visit the library.

County Profiles

Visit this section to learn more about the demographics of Boosting Upward Mobility’s eight participating counties, why these communities are motivated to increase mobility from poverty and promote racial equity, and where they hope to make an impact. The participating counties are

• Alameda County, California;
• Boone County, Missouri;
• Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania;
• Ramsey County, Minnesota;
• Riverside County, California;
• Lucie County, Florida;
• Summit County, Ohio; and
• Washington, DC.

Learn about the cohort counties.  

Glossary

Visit our glossary to better understand the shared language we are using in our work, our blog posts, evidence library materials, and publications. Refer to our working definitions.

Methodology

Here is where you can find out more about Urban’s approach for developing and defining the mobility and the Evidence Resource Library. Learn about our methods.

Mobility Matters Blog

Visit our blog, where we chronicle cohort counties’ experiences, spotlight lessons from the field, and unpack tools and guidance for applying mobility metrics and putting evidence into practice. Read about what we’re learning.

Publications

This is where you can see the latest research and data developed by Urban, including an examination of interventions that have been shown to increase social and economic mobility. Check out our research reports.