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Safe & Stable Families

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Issues » Safe & Stable Families

How can my giving contribute to the physical and financial security of low-income families and neighborhoods?

An abiding sense of insecurity, both physical and financial, is perhaps the most devastating feature of poverty. Increasing the physical and financial security of low-income communities, often on a family-by-family basis, is critical to the long-term viability of communities.

Safer families can be the result of community policing efforts, domestic violence programs and increased engagement in community affairs and decision-making. On the financial side, programs that help families establish mainstream banking relationships, avoid predatory lenders and save for the future lead to greater self-sufficiency and self-esteem.

Taken together, this increased security offers the breathing room needed for low-income families to play more active and positive roles in their neighborhoods and communities.

To learn how your giving can support efforts to enhance the physical and financial security of low-income families, read on.

Learn More About Safe & Stable Families


Measure the Results

Making a Difference

contorer

Contorer Foundation stresses strategy and humility


When successful technology executive Aaron Contorer started his own family foundation, he was not simply trying to create a more meaningful life for himself. He felt compelled to ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. He seeks to accelerate social change in his community.  A former Microsoft executive who helped build products including Windows and MSN, Aaron became inspired by his former boss’ philanthropy while working with him in Seattle in the late 1990s.  “Bill Gates was obviously an amazing role model regarding the importance of philanthropy and focusing on results,” recalls Aaron, 41. “He looks at philanthropy as real work to improve the world rather than just the opportunity to write checks and hope that it does something.” Read More…

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Facts & Figures

  • 84% of low-wage workers do not have access to paid sick days.  So, when these workers get sick they are forced to work or stay at home without pay, and risk losing their job
  • 3 in 5 low-income, non-citizens are uninsured
  • Adults in more than 9 million families (with 19 million children) work regularly but do not earn enough to meet the household’s needs.
  • An estimated 9 million children do not have health care coverage in the US
  • 1 in 4 Americans is asset poor: if they had to live only on their savings, home equity or other asset, they could not survive at the poverty level for 3 months.


In the News

  • Several Southern states have become the nation’s leaders in Pre-K over the last 10 years. As a result, the South in 2007 leads the nation in offering state-funded Pre-K to three- and four-year-old children. Read More...
  • Giving circles multiply donor's impact Read More...
  • Annie E. Casey Foundation releases 2009 Kids Count Read More...