New York, NY – Advocates are investing in grassroots storytelling to shift the public conversation around cash programs. Today, Economic Security Project (ESP) and Guaranteed Income Communities of Practice (GICP) are announcing the five recipients of the Power of Cash Narrative Grants, a program developed to support organizations finding creative ways to elevate the voices of guaranteed income recipients and tell the real story of how cash gives families freedom and opportunity. These five projects promise to excite demand for a reimagined social contract at a time when the failure to extend the expanded Child Tax Credit has pulled the income floor out from under millions of American families this tax season.  

The announcement of narrative grants arrives in conjunction with the publication of the “Guaranteed Income Storytelling Guide,” a resource designed to provide guaranteed income recipients and advocates with tools to tell vivid, humane, and compelling stories about the importance of cash interventions for themselves and their communities. These projects are being announced as a part of the broader effort to support the storytellers, creative strategists and community members who are closest to the struggle for economic freedom.

“The movement for guaranteed income has repeatedly demonstrated how cash-based programs provide families with a solid foundation that allows them to thrive; but we still have much more work to do to change outdated narratives and popular misconceptions about cash and the people who receive it, and to spread the real story about how cash improves access to food, housing, good jobs, and opportunity. Each of the artists in this program has found creative ways to challenge problematic narratives while telling fuller, more truthful stories that advance positive change. I look forward to working with them in this fight,” said Harish I. Patel, Vice President, Build the Field.

“Only by strengthening the storytelling muscles of our community can we start to put a face to the struggle and counter the narratives that have harmed our communities. I am excited to see how the storytellers in this program will collaborate and create new pathways for our communities to share impactful stories,” said Dr. Aisha Nyandoro, CEO of Springboard Opportunities and Co-chair of Guaranteed Income Communities of Practice.

The “Power of Cash Narrative Grant Recipients” includes a variety of creative interventions and features podcasters, video projects, and artist cohorts. Selected from the 500+ members of the Guaranteed Income Communities of Practice, the recipients and their projects are:

• Springboard for the Arts – Minnesota.  “Artists Respond: People, Place, Prosperity” is a cohort of artist-led narrative change projects produced in tandem with the guaranteed income pilot for rural artists in Otter Tail County, MN.
• Just Income GNV – Florida. “The Game of Coming Back to Life” is an e-learning platform that highlights how not having an income floor often leads people impacted by the criminal justice system to cycle through the system repeatedly.
• Rooted School – Louisiana. Rooted School will produce a second season of “Rooted Cash Podcast,” a basic income podcast by youth recipients.
• The New Mexico Economic Relief Working Group – New Mexico. A video storytelling project will focus on the immigrant community.
• Center for Employment Opportunities – Nationwide. A storytelling and live community event will center on post-incarceration life challenges.