Beyond the Cliff Coalition Members

Circles USA Collaborative – Circles Central Florida + Circles Salt Lake

Circles USA (CUSA) operates across 71 communities in the United States and Canada, aiming to end poverty through intentional friendships, personal transformation, and systemic change. Our focus is on mitigating the benefits cliff, a major obstacle to economic stability. By addressing this, we envision equitable, thriving communities free from poverty.

Over 25 years, CUSA has developed resources like videos, field scans, and a benefits cliff calculator, partnering with organizations like Leap Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Each chapter has a Big View Team, including community members and Circle Leaders, working toward systemic change. Symposia and panel discussions have raised awareness and engagement, leading to involvement in research papers, podcasts, and civic events.

In Salt Lake City, UT, discussions moderated by local leaders have spurred invitations to contribute expertise, shaping local initiatives and research. Similar efforts in Arkansas led to the declaration of "Cliff Effect Awareness Day" in Fayetteville. Circles Central Florida received a grant for grassroots advocacy that allowed for five Circles families to attend Children’s Week in the Florida State Capitol in 2024 and share their lived experiences in poverty directly with elected officials.

Through collaboration and community engagement, CUSA strives to create a ripple effect, fostering inclusive, prosperous societies where poverty is eliminated.

Colorado Benefits Cliff Collaborative

We are a Colorado-based collaborative that consists of CrossPurpose, TorchTech, Colorado’s Department of Human Services (CDHS), Spur LLC, and Innovate+Educate. We have collaborated over the last 4 years through a shared goal to help low income Coloradans overcome the Benefits Cliff as they obtain a good job, and then a career at a supportive employer, and complete the journey to self-sufficiency and wealth building. We collaborated on an Aspen Institute Benefits Cliff grant where we leveraged family voices to understand how the cliff impacted families and potential solutions, developed a Family Financial Planner to support the journey from poverty to the middle class, and developed a Toolkit for use by employers as they help their employees navigate the journey. We are currently expanding and enhancing the use of these solutions while also testing/implementing policy changes that help families overcome benefits cliffs.

The DC Department of Human Services’ Career MAP program is a pilot launched in 2023 to remove barriers that 600 families confront as they pursue employment that can sustain their families. For up to five years, the pilot provides resources directly to families who have experienced homelessness, are committed to pursuing a career, and are at risk of experiencing benefits cliffs through the loss of cash, food, health care, child care, and housing benefits.

Episcopal Community Services (ECS) has worked to address the benefits cliff since 2019.  ECS held a series of Forum on Justice and Opportunity events in order to raise awareness about the benefits cliff—in 2019, 2021 (recording available here), and 2022 (recording available here). Our organization has issued stakeholder calls to action on the benefits cliff in Pennsylvania and developed a relationship with one of Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania State Senators who expressed interest in this issue from 2019 onward. Our work with the state senator led to additional funding in the Pennsylvania budget to address the child care subsidy cliff. ECS has also supported its program participants through the use of the benefits cliff calculator tool developed by our long-term partner, Leap Fund. In 2023, ECS received grant funding from the Brook J. Lenfest Foundation for a pilot program to assist program participants in successfully navigating benefits cliffs. The pilot program includes a $15,000 direct assistance fund for participants experiencing benefits cliffs. ECS plans to share pilot data and learnings with public officials and other external stakeholders to continue to heighten awareness of the issue and to affect policy change.

Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont is a nonprofit working to connect people with gainful employment and meaningful work. 

It leads the Benefits Cliff Community Coalition, a diverse group of organizations advocating for policies that address benefits cliffs and aid workers in career progression and businesses in hiring and retaining talent. The coalition aims to change the narrative and provide solutions for individuals and families seeking prosperity. 

A microsite has been developed to provide resources on evidence-based practices, programs, and policies designed to mitigate the impact of the benefits cliff and drive upward economic mobility. Goodwill is one of four employers piloting the CLIFF Employer Tool developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which analyzes the financial implications of wage increases and seeks innovative solutions. 

The coalition advocates for policymakers to adopt policies like those in other states, such as offering transitional benefits or a gradual phase-out of benefits. They have also engaged with local policymakers to shape public policy related to benefits cliffs, resulting in a pilot program in Mecklenburg County to expand eligibility for childcare assistance.

Recently, Goodwill and its partners Freedom Communities and Atrium Health presented to the NC General Assembly about addressing the benefits cliff.

Hennepin County’s benefits cliff pilot program is a multi-pronged approach to helping alleviate and address the benefits cliff and its effects on residents' ability to be financially self-sufficient. Since public assistance program policies are not designed in coordination to align with one another, a person may experience several benefits cliffs while advancing in their career, repeatedly finding themselves at an economic disadvantage as they transition off public assistance. We have 13 community-based organizations that are participating in our pilot program, running the gamut from nationally known non-profits to smaller more localized organizations. Within this pilot program, we have empowered the 13 organizations to design their own unique program to reduce or eliminate the negative effects of the benefits cliff. This multi-pronged approach is made up of four unique strategies that can run concurrently or individually:

-Employment and training services

-Direct financial support and savings match

-Financial education and planning

-Community awareness and education

In 2020, the State of Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) created its Workforce Division, SET For Success with a commitment to removing barriers and connecting families to resources and educational opportunities which can lead to economic stability and self-sustainability. 

The foundation of utilization of the CLIFF tools with DCFS started with conversations between DCFS, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the LA Board of Regents. There was a mutual understanding that families living in poverty and receiving public assistance have barriers to success, require help in navigating these barriers, and need assistance connecting them to resources and educational opportunities. The CLIFF suite of tools were at the forefront of discussions.

By 2021, a commitment was made to implement the use of the CLIFF tools in the Strategies to Empower People (STEP) program, and DCFS partnered with United Way of Southeast Louisiana (UWSELA) for capacity building and development of a strategic plan for conducting a pilot, followed by statewide implementation of CLIFF. DCFS also partnered with UWSELA's Prosperity Center for the integration of financial literacy training for STEP participants. In addition, the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center (Blanco Center) was engaged to measure results of CLIFF usage for the pilot and statewide integration, and current continual data monitoring and reporting on use of CLIFF tools.

Towards Employment, the Northeast Ohio Workforce Coalition and the Ohio Workforce Coalition are partnering to bring 3 perspectives to the learning community: workforce provider, regional policy collaborative, and statewide policy collaborative. Towards Employment, founded in 1976, champions the potential of every person to succeed in a meaningful career, while working to create an equitable and inclusive workforce for tomorrow. For over 2000 workers annually, we provide skill development, comprehensive supports, intensive coaching and strong employer partnerships. We also partner with employers to provide coaching and support for incumbent workers through the Employer Resource Network, which includes educating employers and mitigating cliff-related issues for advancing workers. In addition, Towards Employment is a referring agency to the Cuyahoga County Benefit Bridge pilot, creating a rich opportunity for learning in real time how such pilots can create greater opportunity for workers and their families. Towards Employment leads the Northeast Ohio Workforce Coalition, a regional affiliate of the Ohio Workforce Coalition (OWC). Founded in 2007, OWC works to increase economic mobility by advancing policies and practices that support workers, employers, and public systems. OWC co-convenes a statewide cliff-focused coalition (the Ohio Economic Mobility Alliance) to bring together a wide range of stakeholders who are addressing the cliff from funding, programmatic, and system perspectives. OWC also released cliff related research, shares promising practices, and supports local partners across the workforce development ecosystem. 

For more see: www.towardsemployment.org; and www.ohioworkforcecoaltion.org

2Gen Onondaga is taking on a multigenerational approach, for this pilot, specifically working with young parents that are on TANF. This project will consist of a wraparound, intensive case management design. There will be a shift away from the standard practice of measuring success by client compliance, to measuring success by client engagement/goal achievement.  

2Gen Onondaga’s approach is very unique in that we will be paying special attention to the parent(s), as they gain employment and are on a path to self-sufficiency, to help eliminate the benefits cliff effect for them. Navigating the change from living on public benefits to living on earned income can be terrifying. 2Gen Onondaga will try to change that.  

As part of the wraparound services, 2Gen Onondaga will help supplement the loss in benefits that the parent may experience as he/she starts to earn more money. The hope is that if we can keep mom or dad from falling off the “cliff”, he/she will excel in a career path and eventually be able to earn a living wage that supports them and their family without any supplement or benefits needed.

Springfield WORKS, in partnership with local employer partners and coaching organizations, will develop, launch, implement, and evaluate a Pilot program to support up to 100 participants in three regions in Massachusetts to overcome the benefits cliff. Launched with an initial investment of $1,000,000 from the 2022 Economic Development Bill (leveraging ARPA dollars), last minute legislative changes have slowed implementation and restricted the resources available to launch the Pilot. Initially designed to leverage the state EITC as the funding source and distribution mechanism for cash assistance during the Pilot, we are now working to implement a monthly bridge payment structure that we will administer directly to participants, which required us to raise private funds and develop a process for distributing and protecting payments from means-testing. We will work closely with coaching organizations to provide financial coaching and 1:1 support and referrals as well as local employers to support participants on the path to higher wage employment. Launch date is still TBD, but hopefully this summer depending on the length of time required to protect benefits from means-testing. 

Martha O’Bryan Center established the Tennessee Alliance for Economic Mobility (TAEM), a public-private partnership comprised of 32 organizations, and pursued and received a $25 million Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative grant from the State of Tennessee to tackle the benefits cliff and significantly impact the agency’s efforts to support families in thriving.

In November of 2022, TAEM launched the Our ChanceTN pilot, which is endeavoring to support 1,000 families in moving beyond the benefits cliff in Middle TN. Our ChanceTN provides all families with a coach, customized resources, and financial counseling to support them in navigating through benefits cliffs. Families are randomized into three different pathways and receive a different mix of services which will eventually allow us to understand the impact of a transitional benefit and higher vs. lower intensity family-centered coaching on families’ ability to move forward. Families also have access to $1,000 in client assistance to support them in navigating through challenges with self-sufficiency and barriers to employment.

On the systems level, we strengthen childcare, transportation, housing, and health resources in the region in an effort to cultivate ecosystems to support families in thriving. We seek to transform Tennessee’s social safety net and catalyze federal reform to support thriving families.

The primary focus of the benefits cliff work in Vermont is the Reach Ahead Pilot program. This program provides support to families whose Reach Up (Vermont TANF) or Post Secondary Education (PSE) has closed due to employment. The intent of this pilot is to provide additional support to mitigate the benefits cliff. The pilot is running from July 1, 2023–June 30, 2025 and is funded with $2 million for the duration of the two year program. Participants must be meeting the required number of hours—20 for a single parent with a child under age six; 30 for a single parent with a child aged six or over; or 35 for a two parent household.

Participating households receive coaching from a Career Coach (voluntary), supplementary food benefit ($100 for six months; $50 for eighteen months), regular work support payments ($750 after six months, and $1000 at 12, 18, and 24 months), full childcare subsidy for 24 months regardless of income level, and help paying for transportation, car repairs, work supplies and eligibility for our car donation program.

We are tracking outcomes through participant surveys, income data, and program retention data compared to the previous Reach Ahead program. 

The Workforce Development Council of Seattle King County (WDC) acknowledges the urgent need to address benefits cliffs and advance economic mobility. With King County bearing the highest cost of living in Washington—with over 27% of the state’s struggling households living in one region—having a job is often not enough to guarantee financial stability. 80% of households struggling with poverty have at least one adult working, and approximately 60% have some college credits, yet many still fall short of the Self-Sufficiency Standard despite earning over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.  

Their commitment centers on empowering low-income workers and their families through direct interventions like Guaranteed Basic Income and advocacy for equitable upward mobility. They offer monthly financial assistance ranging from $500 to $1,000 for 10 to 12 months to priority groups in the Economic Security for All (EcSA) program. These include BIPOC communities, refugees/immigrants, justice-involved individuals, domestic violence survivors, and other underinvested communities.

Their intervention includes comprehensive career services such as training funds, work-based learning, a savings match program, job search assistance, and vital supportive services. To gauge impact, they employ EMPath's Bridge to Self-Sufficiency framework, assessing family stability, well-being, education, financial management, and employment progress. Positive outcomes from their pilot highlight improved employment rates, enhanced financial security, advancements in career plans, and overall quality of life improvements.