The state of Georgia is introducing a guaranteed income program that will provide $850 a month to more than 600 Black women for at least two years, 11 Alive reports.
According to the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity Fund (GRO Fund), the program, In Her Hands, is set to distribute over $13 million to a selection of Georgian inhabitants.
The pilot program will begin by targeting 200 women in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, where City Council representative Amir Farokhi has been at work to ensure that an income program was established.
The no-strings-attached monthly income will allow "individuals and families to invest in what they need—from providing for basic needs to keeping a roof over their heads to paying for medical care, to investing in their family and future—and maintain agency over their lives while doing so."
On Twitter, Farokhi noted that one of the major components of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s political vision was a guaranteed income for the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
"This initiative, designed with resident input, will transform lives & help us understand the personal & policy benefits of income stability for our most vulnerable," Farokhi tweet read. "We'll look at mental health outcomes and employment and career choices, among others."
Hope Wollensack, executive director of the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity Fund, also evoked Dr. King’s message of economic equality on Twitter.
“We found economic insecurity needed to be combated at the root, like MLK said in 1968, "I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income,” Wollensack tweeted.
"[The] In Her Hands initiative will not only provide greater economic stability for program participants but will generate much-needed learnings on policies to advance an economy of shared prosperity," she added.
A combination of private donors, sponsors, as well as local and federal funds are underwriting the innovative program.
Because there is no application process, each candidate will be invited to participate.
GiveDirectly, a donation service, is continuing to accept contributions to the fund and has raised nearly $10 million, enough so to fund 429 incomes.
The remaining 221 incomes are still in need of full funding.
