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Partner with United Way to build systems that get families to the incomes they need. In January, United Way for Greater Austin hosted the Family-Sustaining Income Summit, where we highlighted a persistent challenge in how we design and implement economic mobility programs, systems, and initiatives in our area. The data we commonly use to inform upward mobility opportunities does not reflect what families actually need to be stable. Poverty measures, like Federal Poverty Level (FPL), are used to evaluate household needs and set eligibility for government and nonprofit assistance. A household income of 100% FPL defines households living in poverty and 200% FPL is classified as low-income. Most government and nonprofit support systems are designed to phase out  around these household income levels. However, because the Greater Austin area has a higher cost of living than other parts of the country and because the FPL has not meaningfully changed in decades, FPL is greatly undercounting the number of households actually struggling to make ends meet. Poverty measures show us what households are potentially in crisis and eligible for public assistance programs, but not the entirety of households struggling to make ends meet. Family-sustaining income measures calculate the income families actually need to be able to pay their bills, send their children to high-quality child care, and save for emergencies. This is the income families need to be stable, and beyond that, to thrive. The ALICE dataset is a family-sustaining income measure used by United Way that makes visible the thousands […]