Innovation – New York’s Antipoverty Initiative

 This is probably one of the best stories I heard in a while.  We are in Bangalore where I am giving some talks and found this piece of news in a local newspaper.

The school incentive program is part of the mayor’s wider antipoverty initiative, which also includes other cash payments, all raised privately, to influence behavior and reduce poverty. Details of the various incentive programs were announced yesterday by Linda Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, at a briefing at City Hall. The incentive programs are expected to attract more than 2,500 families in Harlem; Brownsville and East New York in Brooklyn; and the Morris Heights and East Tremont sections of the Bronx, she said.

Cash incentives for adults will include $150 a month for keeping a full-time job and $50 a month for having health insurance. Families will also receive as much as $50 per month per child for high attendance rates in school, as well as $25 for attending parent-teacher conferences.

A program like this may go a long way in educating poor children in countries where parents would rather have their children working to support the family.

The cool thing about this program is that all the funding is from private sources.