And so it begins. This is the first of what I hope will be a limited series of updates on the impact of sequestration on the very real people served by JVS. Over the next 7 months JVS will lose funding for employment services for formerly incarcerated individuals and former substance abusers that would have led to more than 40 of them getting jobs.
Jerry Rubin
In spite of the hostility frequently aimed at immigrants, people from around the world are still willing to leave everything behind for the chance to make it in America.
On any given morning, a visit to JVS reveals multiple inspirational stories of refugees and immigrants arriving in America for their shot at the dream. Yet, the social mobility that fuels the American dream has faded dramatically, and may eventually knock the United States off of its pedestal as the destination of choice for ambitious immigrants.
According to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the United States today has less social mobility than almost any other advanced industrial country. In a recent article, Stiglitz notes that "only 58 percent of Americans born into the bottom fifth of income earners move out of that category and just 6 percent born into the bottom fifth move into the top," a rate of social mobility lower than most of Europe.
The income and education of American parents are a better predictor of economic success for their children than in nearly all other advanced economies across the globe. Yet, for many young Americans, native born, and immigrants, educational access has become far more challenging. Educational inflation, public disinvestment, and increased demand for available college seats all mean that young Americans are incurring record and crippling debt, or failing to enter and succeed in college at all.
The American dream is built on education, and while education is not a sufficient predictor of economic success, it is necessary. If the United States wants to maintain its strong economy, with the innovation and entrepreneurship that drives it, educational access will have to improve quickly.
Do you agree?
Jerry Rubin
In 2008, during the depths of the recession, I spent the morning visiting a job club that we were running in a synagogue on the South Shore. The vast majority of the participants were over 50, out of work, and many were very dispirited. Hearing about their experience, skills and passions, I kept thinking about what a waste of human talent this was, and left feeling haunted by the experience, and very frustrated that we couldn't quickly fix the situation for them.
In 2010, after watching countless other older workers struggle to regain their footing in a challenging and rapidly changing job market, I had the good fortune to meet Phyllis Segal for lunch. Phyllis, a nationally known leader in the areas of community service and maximizing the potential of mature workers, heard my frustration with our limited solutions for older workers and told me about a new program called ReServe that was expanding out of New York into new cities. ReServe is an innovative staffing resource for nonprofit and public organizations that puts experience to work at a very affordable cost. Talented individuals 55 years and older are placed in stipended positions with nonprofit and public organizations. The organizations are able to expand their impact, and the ReServists are able to apply their talents in a new environment, giving them the opportunity to do fulfilling work, pivot into a new career, or both. We jumped on Phyllis's suggestion immediately and began planning ReServe Greater Boston, which formally launched today. Read more.
A couple of months ago I visited a ReServe 'First Impressions' session and heard the stories of 20 remarkably talented, mature workers who brought optimism, energy, and idealism to the session. JVS hired our first ReServists this past month, one to help recruit other ReServists, and another to coordinate volunteer tax assistance that allows Boston families to access the Earned Income Tax Credit and add thousands of dollars to their bottom line. A growing number of non-profits are hiring ReServists, and we plan to have a starting corp of 25 by year's end. Our dream is to enlist an army of ReServists to enhance nonprofit and public capacity in the Boston area, and to help tackle some of our biggest challenges and opportunities like helping young and working adults succeed in college, or improving health outcomes in our neighborhoods. If you are a nonprofit or public agency, a foundation that supports nonprofits, or a mature worker, over 55, you should check out ReServe by contacting Judy Bottkol at JBottkol@jvs-boston.org.
Jerry Rubin
They say that what gets measured gets done. JVS has long had a culture of measuring and evaluating our work. But with the recent completion of the Social Return On Investment Study (SROI), we took our measurement to a new level. Paraphrasing Jeff Swartz, former CEO of Timberland Co., and a panelist at the study’s publication event, SROI moves the field of human services and philanthropy from inputs and outcomes to impact, and that is an enormous leap. JVS’s, and peer organizations’ previous data collection efforts focused primarily on inputs, such as how many people we served, and outputs, such as how many people we helped get jobs. The SROI formula, which measures the difference in client earnings over time, divided by the total cost of our services to those clients, measures impact, or how the lives of those clients are changed.
SROI is powerful in two respects. It can help non-profits improve their services by providing data on which services are most effective, given limited resources. For example, based in part on the SROI study, JVS decided to end its intensive, successful, and long-standing culinary program when its SROI was not strong enough relative to a less expensive model operating in our refugee services area that provides similar services. SROI can also help private and public investors in non-profits compare apples to apples, and measure what really matters; impacts vs. inputs.
SROI has enormous implications for the non-profit field and philanthropy. The Boston Globe, in a recent article about the SROI study quoted United Way CEO Michael Durkin. "At a time when trust of institutions is generally pretty challenged - and nonprofits amongst those - we've got to be able to communicate a story to donors about what impact their donations are having," Durkin said. "The ability to tell your story not only with heartwarming anecdotes but with real numbers against a hard scale, that's a real asset." I couldn't agree more.
Jerry Rubin
On Wednesday following election day, most Americans were waking up bleary-eyed from staying up too late watching returns, happy to say goodbye to the constant barrage of campaign ads, and either thrilled or dismayed with the results.
I had the unique pleasure of spending a fair part of that day with a group of individuals who, according to many observers and pundits of both political persuasions, represent the tipping point demographic in this election; : women and immigrants. When I walked into the classes of Bridges to College and Careers and reflected on the excitement of the past 24 hours, the students lit up, and many held up copies of the front pages of the morning's papers. They knew, as well as any pundit, that they were the new players in our nation's political, economic and social landscape, and they were thrilled.
Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, in his post-election column noted that the Pew Research Group and others find that American immigrant groups:
"… have an awesome commitment to work. By most measures, members of these groups value industriousness more than whites. Second, they are also tremendously appreciative of government. In survey after survey, they embrace the idea that some government programs can incite hard work, not undermine it; enhance opportunity, not crush it. Moreover, when they look at the things that undermine the work ethic and threaten their chances to succeed, it's often not government. It's a modern economy in which you can work more productively, but your wages still don't rise. It's a bloated financial sector that just sent the world into turmoil. It's a university system that is indispensable but unaffordable. It's chaotic neighborhoods that can't be cured by withdrawing government programs."
The students I met on Wednesday certainly confirm Pew and Brooks's analysis. They all work, many support families, and yet they are squeezing in many hours a week to learn, study, and prepare to enter college and better careers. They are dreamers, climbers, and doers, and will take advantage of anything that can help them move up the ladder better and faster.
It's a narrative that not only wins elections, but also wins personal, and economic victories.
Jerry Rubin
JVS | 29 Winter Street | Boston, MA 02108 | T: 617-399-3131 | F: 617-451-9973
