The local nonprofit that distributed millions of dollars to Black Portlanders throughout the pandemic is launching a new program to further support Black Portlanders — three years of sustained, guaranteed income.
Starting Aug. 15, the Black Resilience Fund will award about 50 Black Portlanders up to $2,000 a month for the next three years.
The pilot program received 7,500 applications within the first few days.
The fund is designed for Multnomah County residents aged 18 years or older who identify as Black, African American or African. The fund also prioritizes formerly incarcerated people, single parents, low-wage workers and foster care alums.
The income program is funded by donations made to Brown Hope, a broader nonprofit that operates the Black Resilience Fund. The organization strives to raise $500,000 by the end of the year for the new program.
Single adults receive up to $1,000 a month, while people with one or two children receive $1,500 and adults with three or more children receive $2,000. Local nonprofit Oregon Community Foundation partnered with the organization and will match donations up to $100,000 until the end of August.
Simultaneously, a mutual aid network was also launched through the Black Resilience Fund to help community members with everything from yard work to emotional support.
Cameron Whitten, a well-known social justice advocate, founded Brown Hope in 2018 with the intention to break the cycle of traumas through healing initiatives for Black, brown and Indigenous people in Portland.
“Our work is done through this healing justice approach, and it's not just to provide economic resources because of racial injustice, but actually to provide economic, social and spiritual support to heal from the trauma of racism,” Whitten, who serves as the CEO, said.
An ancient idea revolutionized
Basic income programs are far from new.
In 2017, economic benefit programs accounted for approximately 16% of the reduction in Black poverty rates, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities study. A similar report conducted by the organization in 2021 found financial security programs are one of the most effective solutions to eradicating poverty and meeting basic needs within Black communities.
A guaranteed income ensures people have money every month without questions about how they will use it. Recent examples of basic income programs show success — a basic income pilot program for residents was found to improve mental health and quality of life in Finland.
Now, after a successful and sustained run for the Black Resilience Fund’s one-time cash assistance program which distributed millions to Black Portlanders, Brown Hope wants to expand. The precedent already exists. Groups in other cities launched programs similar to Brown Hope’s Black Resilience Fund with success.
In Georgia and Mississippi, resilience funds provide Black women monthly payments of $850 to $1,000.
Whitten said the initial iteration of the Black Resilience Fund received a lot of positive feedback from its recipients.
"We've collected a lot of testimonials from our recipients, and one we've heard overwhelmingly is how folks really felt like their needs were being met by the responsiveness of our program,” Whitten said. “The wait times are extremely minimal, and (people) also spoke to the fact that they felt seen in a way they hadn't before.”
Black Resilience Fund leadership and staff are entirely Black, which creates another layer of recipients feeling supported by a group of people who understand what they are going through on a deeper level.
"It's Black people helping Black people," Whitten said. "And also (people have spoken to) how their dignity and humanity was embraced and celebrated because we gave direct cash assistance without interrogation. For us, we continue to be big champions of trust-based philanthropy — getting rid of red tape, getting rid of bureaucracy — and really giving out support and making an impact where it's most needed."
Opportunities and healing
For Miguel Kinsey, the basic income program equals one thing: opportunity.
Kinsey, a basic income program applicant, recently returned to school to earn his GED. He then plans on pursuing a career in personal fitness and trades. The 30-year-old is a single father of four and said extra monthly income would help him balance his studies while also taking care of his children.
"The fund will help me focus more on my studies,” Kinsey said. “To be able to put more time and energy in school instead of trying to find work for 40 hours a week. And I'm also a single dad, so I can't just not work. So this will definitely help me out.”
Besides school, Kinsey does contract work for the Black Resilience Fund and does a bit of modeling on the side.
Last summer, Kinsey began volunteering with Brown Hope in their Solidarity Squad program; this then turned into a paid position where he delivers food to homeless Portlanders, works in the clothing closets and more. He said this work hits home for him as he can see himself in many clients.
"Coming from a poor household, we'd always had organizations like that help us out with food boxes, and I remember going to clothes closets as a kid to pick out clothes for school,” Kinsey said. “So now it feels good to have this opportunity to give back to people who (I was once) in their shoes.”
On a simmering Friday afternoon, Kinsey trails into Irving Park in Northeast Portland with his three sons, Miguel Jr., Gabriel and Isaac, gliding alongside him on their scooters.
The four will hang out at the park for a bit, exploring the playground before heading out to one of the free concerts around the city.
Besides more time to spend with his children due to the additional funding each month, Kinsey said the income program would help him be a mentor and provide more structured guidance for his children — something he was always searching for during his younger years.
"Growing up in a fatherless household, I didn't have that guidance or that direction,” Kinsey said. “I didn't have anyone to push me and tell me to go to school, get my education first — so now I'm realizing that if I had a mentor or someone to look up to, I could have gone a different path. That's ultimately where it comes down to that guidance was missing, and I want to be guidance (for my children)."
The three-year program will also offer opportunities for recipients to build a community among their peers. Whitten said they intend to host informal gatherings for people to attend as their "authentic selves."
"It is a gathering for peers to build authentic connections,” Whitten said. “The way that we approach this work is that Black people are already amazing contributions (in) their community, and what they are lacking are those authentic connections to each other. So, our spaces are designed for folks to really build relationships. And the vision is that at the end of the three-year program, folks are leaving with not just money in their pockets, but they're also leaving with best friends."
Changing the status quo
Moving forward, Brown Hope wants to continue having its evaluation team to conduct monthly surveys and focus groups and continue relationships with its recipients — even years after they finish with the program.
"And to (also) really provide what knowledge is to both Portland but across this country about the transformative impact of basic income," Whitten said of the organization’s goals. "Portland is a city that still grapples with an uncomfortable dynamic when it comes to racial injustice. We need healing as a community. I do have a lot of hope that Portland can be a spotlight for this country when it comes to reparations, when it comes to healing, when it comes to innovation and trust."
This year has been a time of change for Brown Hope and the resilience fund. Whitten is leaning into that change.
"We are at a time to continue to challenge the status quo,” Whitten said. “I think as a community, we want to see change, and COVID really gave us some hope for how we can take urgent action on social change and racial justice.”
Whitten said more work still needs to be done, and possibly, the new income program will be a guiding light for others.
"I'm excited with the launch of this three-year basic income program because it is just one example of the seeds of hope that we can plant for Portland," Whitten said.
The only constant is change
While the basic income program represents a major step in the evolution of Brown Hope, the organization is well-acquainted with rapid, significant change.
Since 2018, Brown Hope orchestrated programs uplifting, connecting and empowering Portlanders of color, like Reparations Happy Hour and Blackstreet Bakery. The nonprofit has also led other community outreach programs that provide neighbors with food, clothing and other necessities.
“Our work with Brown Hope is to really bring alive this dream that racial trauma is something that we can heal from and that we can create a future where Black, Brown and Indigenous people thrive — and that happens through healing,” Whitten said.
In 2020, everything changed for the organization.
After the police murder of George Floyd, Whitten started to receive messages from his friends checking in on him and asking essentially the same question: "How can I help?"
"I had a lot of white folks who were texting and calling me, asking if I was okay and if I needed anything,” Whitten said. “I said, 'I'm doing fine, but if you want to help, I know some Black folks who are in need of money.’”
The community activist then took to Facebook, writing a post outlining the dire need for healing — and to get to that point, justice must be served.
"Systemic change requires prolonged effort, but we can also make an immediate difference for frontline communities,” Whitten wrote in a May 31, 2020 Facebook post. “I'm calling on non-Black allies to support the Resilience of Black people in our very own community.”
He asked if any Black Portlanders needed food or help to pay a bill and then followed up by saying that if any non-Black community members would like to help, they could donate to their neighbors. He raised $11,000 that day and was able to give away $8,500 to those who asked for assistance.
Whitten then teamed up with Salome Chumuku, and the pair formally launched the Black Resilience Fund — which has helped around 8,000 Portlanders since its inception and raised over $2.5 million.
As community members, local entities and businesses continued to donate money to Brown Hope, the pair would then place it in the hands of Black Portlanders who needed some financial assistance.
Whitten and Chumuku sifted through hundreds of requests for financial assistance; this prompted them to create an application and review process to select candidates. The micro-grants then gave up to $300 per person.
Within one month, Brown Hope had raised over $1 million.
"In the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, we as a country were griveing the inustice … and also really reckoning with the unresolved racial divide in this county," Whitten said. "Black Resilience Fund was created as an opportunity for us to transform our anger, our grief into action."
Two years later, the fund has expanded and soon will welcome the brand new model.
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