How We Measure Success

How We Measure Success

How will we know when we have successfully broken poverty?

First, we need to ask the right questions. For decades, organizations have relied on metrics that do not truly measure economic mobility. Helping a person obtain a job – even if they keep that job for years – does not guarantee that they will no longer be living in poverty.

Poverty is more than a lack of money. Poverty negatively impacts health and relationships, and it is reinforced by systems of oppression that keep people and communities isolated and disenfranchised. 

Long-term goals

We work with participants for up to three years. We believe that meeting the following goals will reflect meaningful progress towards achieving mobility:

  • a job that pays wages at self-sufficiency level (for example, $28,000 annually in Alameda County for a single adult)
  • savings equal to one-month’s budgeted expenses
  • ongoing healthcare coverage and a yearly physical exam
  • improved social connections through participation in community, civic or faith-based activities

Intermediate-term goals

As participants move toward their long-term goals, we track their forward progress using the following indicators:

  • Increase actual monthly earnings every six months from initial job placement
  • Achieve training, education, or entrepreneurship goals stated in Long-Term Career Plan
  • Utilize banking, credit, and other mainstream financial systems
  • Achieve spending and asset-building goals stated in Long-Term Financial Plan
  • Avoid missed work due to destabilizing behavioral health crises
  • Achieve health and behavioral health goals stated in Personal Wellness Plan
  • Avoid missed work due to destabilizing legal crises
  • Achieve criminal record remedies and civil legal goals in Legal Plan
  • Register to vote and participate in an election
  • Participate in social, civic, educational, arts, sports, or religious group identified in Service Plan

Short-term goals

Short-term outcomes are an important measure of our progress towards our long-term goals. Short-term goals include:

  • The number of participants obtaining jobs
  • Employment retention
  • Average starting wage

2021 Outcomes

2015 Outcomes