This morning, Phyllis introduced a Webinar hosted by one of our Grantee Partners, Wider Opportunities for Women, on a tool they’ve developed to help calculate the true income needed to raise a family in our region.
As Phyllis explained, "With the current economic downturn…families are increasingly focusing on cutting back. And for some families—particularly those headed by single mothers—this means slipping from barely making it to not making it. But where is the line? According to the federal poverty standard—which hasn’t changed since 1960—a family of three headed by a single mom isn’t poor if she earns a dollar more than $16,500. Yet, the real costs of raising that family are far greater…The federal standard is based just on the cost of food and doesn’t include crucial costs to families like child care, health care and transportation."
That’s why WOW’s standard is important, as it shows the the real cost for a single mother to raise an infant and a pre-schooler is $55,000 a year in Prince George’s County, $58,000 in Washington, D.C. and about $70,000 to live in Arlington or Montgomery Counties.
A bit more realistic.
The Self-Sufficiency Calculator will not only allow a family to calculate what income they’d need to be self-sufficient based on family size, geography, etc., but it also provides information on how to find jobs that would meet that level of income and are attainable even without a college or two-year degree.
The Calculator can be accessed at www.dcmassc.org.
WOW recently hosted a session featuring two other resources that help direct service providers in our area help heads of low-income families, who are usually women.
One is the DC Food Finder, produced by So Others Might Eat (SOME), another Grantee Partner. The Food Finder is an excellent resource that uses Google mapping to show where a variety of food resources exist in relation to a particular neighborhood or address, from food pantries to low-cost groceries to farmer’s markets.
Finally, the District Alliance for Safe Housing developed the Housing Resource Center, which helps identify housing appropriate in various situations, ranging from women fleeing domestic violence with children to affordable homes to purchase. The resource enables service providers or individuals to input information relevant to them and then to access information particular to their situation.
Many thanks to WOW, SOME and the District Alliance for Safe Housing for developing, updating and maintaining these tools that provide crucial information to our region’s low-income families as they strive for self-sufficiency.
Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications.
