Announcing a Partnership between HudsonUP and the Jain Family Institute
HudsonUP announced today a research partnership with the Jain Family Institute (JFI), a nonpartisan applied research organization that works to bring research and policy from conception in theory to implementation in society. JFI’s core policy area in guaranteed income has international scope in cash policy research and pilot design: they are the design and research partner on The Compton Pledge—one of the largest ongoing guaranteed income pilots in the country—and are leading the evaluation of a 42,000-person guaranteed income program in Maricá, Brazil. Likewise, JFI consulted on the Stockton SEED pilot, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, and related policies in New York City, Chicago, Newark and Atlanta. JFI Senior Fellow and Associate Professor of Social Work at Appalachian State University Leah Hamilton will serve as principal investigator for HudsonUP.
HudsonUP is a basic income pilot created by The Spark of Hudson and Humanity Forward providing 25 randomly-selected residents with $500 each month for five years. The initiative is designed in collaboration with the community and is championed by Mayor Kamal Johnson. The 25 recipients have been selected from a pool of Hudson residents with incomes at or below the city’s median of $35,000 per year. Researchers will focus not just on quantifiable outcomes but also on the qualitative experience of recipients by conducting regular interviews throughout the pilot’s five year duration.
HudsonUP is the first pilot of its kind to take place in a small city in America, and one of the first to take place over the course of several years. The pilot’s length will afford tremendous new research and insights on the effects basic income can have on an individual over several years. In addition to data yielded by this research, HudsonUP will also share stories from those in the community who have been impacted by the program. The HudsonUP team will work to amplify these narratives of how a basic income can change lives and transform communities.
