Agenda-At-A-Glance
Plenary Session
9am - 10:15pm
Land of Opportunity: Place Race and Economic Mobility
Description: Rates of upward mobility vary substantially based on where children grow up;
low-income families are segregated into lower-opportunity areas. Oftentimes, communities of color, limited to specific zip codes throughout Palm Beach County, struggle with
poverty and economic mobility. This plenary session will explore how a person's zip code and race can impact their future. The session will close with action items
organizations can implement to be a catalyst for change.
Safety and Justice
10:30am-11:45am
Barred from Employment: Promoting Criminal Justice Policy Reform to Promote Economic Mobility
Description: Some policies promoted within the criminal
justice system adversely impacts an individual's ability to obtain gainful employment. When a person is imprisoned, family members may struggle to make ends meet and children
struggle mentally and emotionally causing an enormous amount of stress on the family unit. Returning citizens experience even more stress when attempting to reintegrate into society.
This session will uncover ways to eliminate barriers to economic mobility so that families can thrive economically during and after an interaction with the criminal justice system.
Health and Wellness
10:30am-11:45am
Taking the Long View: Using Health as a Lever to Advance Economic Mobility
Description: The Health and wellness of a person can significantly impact their
ability to gain and/or maintain employment. Individuals with poor health are more likely to experience poverty; those who are employed often times do not get paid when they miss work
due to an illness. Many families struggle to pay for medical care which perpetuates a cycle of mental anguish and emotional distress. This session will focus on innovative strategies to
promote health and wellness while aligning policies and institutional practices to enhance opportunities for economic mobility.
Food and Hunger
10:30am-11:45am
Food and Economics: Leveraging the Food System to Promote Economic Mobility
Description: Key stakeholders within Palm Beach County are engaging in a new endeavor
to alleviate the hunger needs of impoverished families, whereby improving their ability to gain and maintain employment. This comprehensive hunger relief strategy could also create opportunities
for entrepreneurship in the food and hunger space. This session will share insights on recent efforts to enhance the county's food infrastructure and ways it could help promote economic mobility
for individuals and families.
Transportation
10:30am-11:45am
Getting Around to Get Ahead: The Role of Transportation in Fostering Economic Mobility
Description: Lack of reliable transportation can prevent individuals from gaining
or maintaining employment. Furthermore, transportation is the second largest expense for American households, costing more than food, clothing and sometimes healthcare. In this session, we will discuss
the critical impact transportation has on a family's ability to advance economically and share ways that key stakeholders are promoting upward mobility through transportation policy.
Lunch and Panel: Employment and Economic Mobility
12:15pm-1:15pm
Working Up: Improving Pathways for Upward Mobility for Low-earning workers
Description: Families experiencing poverty have limited social and human capital to support their
opportunities to advance economically. Research has shown that these social networks can significantly improve an individual's prospect to become financially independent. This workshop will explore
evidence-based models that can help families build social capital, whereby enhancing pathways for employment and opportunities to advance economically.
Childcare
1:30pm-2:45pm
For the Public Good: Investing in Childcare to Promote Economic Mobility
Description: The lack of affordable, quality childcare is a significant barrier to employment for
parents of young children. When parents are unemployed or out of the labor force, it is more challenging for them to move up the economic ladder. Furthermore, substantial research demonstrates that
accessible high-quality childcare positively affects childhood growth, physical development and health, cognitive, behavioral, and school outcomes; thus, lack of such child care access limits the
child's future economic mobility. This session will focus on strategies to enhance childcare supports to help individuals advance economically.
Housing and Economic Mobility
1:30pm-2:45pm
Housing and Opportunity: Best Practices for Addressing Housing Barriers to Advance Family Economic Mobility
Description: Housing is a significant driver for economic mobility.
There are a number of efforts currently underway to increase the availability of affordable housing throughout Palm Beach County. This workshop will discuss housing strategies that can improve access to
affordable housing supports and will share policy recommendations that can help families advance economically.
Education
1:30pm-2:45pm
Opening the Door: Educations' Role in Earnings, Employment, and Economic Mobility
Description: Education is a clear pathway to upward economic mobility. In today's high-tech world,
highly skilled labor is in demand, and increasingly, an education or technical certification beyond high school is viewed as a requisite for earning an adequate standard of living. This workshop will discuss the
relationship between education and economic mobility and will share strategies and policy recommendations that will maximize opportunities for impoverished families to advance economically.
Case Management
1:30pm-2:45pm
Intentional Relationships: Engaging in strong case-manager / client relationships to advance Economic Mobility
Description: In many instances, a family's relationship with their case manager
is an important predictor of their success. Case managers not only act as connectors and catalysts for personal development but also build crucial social capital for clients. This workshop will discuss best practices in
providing employment-focused case management and how these relationships can be leveraged to advance economic mobility.
Closing Comments
3:00pm-4:00pm
Closing remarks by our Summit leadership team. The leadership team will summarize what was learned with steps to getting involved.
