Understanding Guaranteed Income

Creative Change Coalition 

Technical Assistance Workshop

Understanding Guaranteed Income

Guest Presenters:

Dr. Kalen Flynn, Center for Guaranteed Income Research at University of Pennsylvania

Shafeka Hashash, Economic Security Project

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

12-1:30PM PST / 2-3:30PM CST / 3-4:30PM EST

All are welcome, designed for place-based organizations.

Free

On Zoom

Register to attend.

Across the country, early Guaranteed Income pilots are proving that direct cash assistance is a powerful tool for addressing economic insecurity and community health. As these pilots build momentum and push for state and national policy change, there are important ways that this work can involve and impact artists and culture workers. Join the Creative Change Coalition for an introduction and exploration of Guaranteed Income programs, research, and advocacy. Guest presenters Shafeka Hashash with the Economic Security Project, Dr. Kalen Flynn with the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at University of Pennsylvania, and Ricardo Beaird with Springboard for the Arts will share research and tactics for understanding and advocating for Guaranteed Income in your place.

Participants will leave the session with:

-A better understanding of what Guaranteed Income is and how and why it supports healthy creative ecosystems;

-Tools and language for advocating for and supporting Guaranteed Income initiatives across the country;

-Connections and exchange with other practitioners from across the country.

Presenter Bios:

Kalen Flynn, PhD, MSW, MSSP

Research Scientist, University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Kalen earned her MSW, MSSP, and PhD from SP2. She comes to the center with over a decade of experience in research and policy practice. As a social science researcher, social work educator, and former policy -research practitioner, Dr. Flynn focuses her research on two aims: first, investigating the impacts of structural violence, and second, examining policy solutions to mitigate these impacts. Her work has earned accolades including an honorable mention for the Society of Social Work Research’s Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2019 and the Social Services Review’s Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize in 2022. Dr. Flynn is PI of two guaranteed income pilots in Saint Paul, MN examining the impacts on refugee families and artists, she is also co-PI on the NIH funded grant “Child Support Arrears: Understanding the Scope, Magnitude, and Opportunities for Reform in Cook County”. Kalen has expertise in qualitative methods and community-based research.

 

Shafeka Hashash

Program Manager, Guaranteed Income Community of Practice with the Economic Security Project 

Shafeka Hashash is the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice program manager. In this role she is fortunate to hold a birdseye view of guaranteed income work happening across the nation, and support the diversity of partners needed to move from pilots to policy through resource development, convening opportunities, training and strategizing. As a community organizer, she has led campaigns ranging from closing a Fair Labor Standards Act loophole that allowed disabled employees to be paid subminimum wages, an anchor team member and mayoral appointee of the Atlanta Communities Over Cages alliance to close and repurpose the Atlanta City Detention Center, and strong advocate for the rights of Palestinians, including political prisoners. She formerly was the senior coordinator at New American Pathways, leading a team supporting immigrants and refugees facing family violence, and then directed the economic programs at the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence where she began the first ever direct cash program through the Google Impact Challenge fund. She holds a bachelors/masters in political economy from NYU, and spends her time away from community organizing tandem cycling.