Black women face more economic insecurity as a result of systemic barriers like pay inequality and fewer economic buffers than nearly any other demographic in Georgia.

Black women earn $0.63 on the dollar to white men in Georgia, and 38% of Black women in the Old 4th Ward of Atlanta live in poverty, compared to 26% of Black men and 8% of white women.

In English Avenue and Vine City, majority-Black neighborhoods, women are 54% of the population, and nearly half of women live in poverty.

Black women in Georgia also face uniquely high barriers to wealth creation. Many act as primary caretakers, and must deprioritize health costs or take on debt to cover their family’s basic needs.

While people and communities are incredibly resilient and resourceful, Black women are among the most likely group to experience cash shortfalls that make covering basic needs difficult.

Direct, no-strings-attached cash allows individuals and families to invest in what they need — from providing for basic needs, to keeping a roof over their heads, to paying for medical care, to investing in their family and future — and maintain agency over their lives while doing so.

The GRO Fund model has been developed in coalition with community members, through a 28-member task force, community survey, and listening sessions with local residents in each of the project locations. Members of the community helped to determine key aspects of the project design, from the duration to the cash transfer schedule.

A universal basic income (UBI) is regular cash assistance given to an entire population that provides for a subsistence level of money. For example, GiveDirectly’s UBI study in Kenya provides every individual in rural villages with monthly payments of ~$25.

A guaranteed income (GI) is regular cash assistance that is targeted at a particular demographic or income level, like this project. GI is an income supplement.

UBI and GI are both forms of direct cash assistance.

Applications for the next phase of In Her Hands for residents of the English Avenue, Vine City, Bankhead, and Washington Park neighborhoods will be open from May 15th to May 31st. Go to www.thegrofund.org/apple and sign up for our email list for future updates on when the application becomes available.

On the whole, the communities we spoke with reported knowing how to budget and make sound financial decisions for their families.

It doesn’t matter how well you can budget when your income consistently lags behind the cost of providing for basic needs for yourself and your family. Conversations with community experts did not identify financial literacy as a core challenge among our prospective recipients. Community members identified recurring cash relief as a key tool to get them “off the hamster wheel” of persistent debt.

Community-based organizations, policy advocates, and government leaders across the U.S. and other countries are increasingly pointing to guaranteed income as a policy that can make a significant impact in people’s lives. We hope to add to this conversation by studying how guaranteed income can particularly benefit Black women — a population in Georgia that has historically faced disproportionate structural barriers at the intersection of both gender and racial wealth gaps.

The research component of this project will be led by Dr. Leah Hamilton at Appalachian State University and is specifically designed to help us understand the mechanisms by which cash can improve women’s lives and wellbeing.