Problem

The face of poverty in the United States has changed but solutions remain stagnant. While Americans associate poverty with unemployment, BusinessWeek reports that 63% of families living below the poverty line include one or more working members. While this problem is clearly detrimental for workers, it also negatively affects businesses. Springboard has created a business-based solution that makes it profitable for businesses to invest in the careers of their low-wage workforce.

The Gift

Springboard’s approach focuses on expanding individuals’ view of what’s possible—changing their mindsets about, and increasing, the choices they have in their lives and careers. At Springboard, we believe that a strong sense of hope and choice is essential to permanently escape from poverty. Today, Springboard is launching a large-scale initiative to statistically establish the link between our career development programs and business profitability. This national demonstration project will create an authoritative study of Springboard’s career advancement programs’ impact on the employees and on the employer. Springboard believes the retail sector can be transformed from a “dead end” to a new source of opportunity for generations of low-wage workers. By empowering and inspiring employees, and by providing employers with a business value for investing in their workers, it is poised to establish an entirely new business framework for investing in the working poor.