Stanford SPARQ Expands SPARQtools With Toolkit for Measuring Mobility From Poverty
In collaboration with the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty and the Urban Institute, SPARQ has created an online toolkit to assist program managers, policy makers, educators, activists, evaluators, and other practitioners with measuring the progress of their efforts to help people achieve upward mobility.
The Measuring Mobility toolkit, part of SPARQtools, will help practitioners design and scale more effective poverty-alleviation programs that increase people's social mobility, prosperity, and wellbeing. It accomplishes this by taking a more holistic view of what mobility means.
The toolkit's measures look at not only the traditional metric of economic success, but also power and autonomy and how much people feel valued in their community. This more holistic definition of mobility arose from and informed the efforts of the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, a group of 24 leading voices that represented academia, practice, the faith community, philanthropy, and the private sector.
The scientific principles behind the measures in the toolkit are explained in a collection of brief articles. Practitioners can search the measures by age, reading level, and duration to find those that work best with the people they're trying to help.
SPARQ is a Stanford Psychology Department "do tank" that partners with organizations to reduce social disparities in health, education, criminal justice, and economic mobility. To learn more about the Mobility Measures toolkit, sparqtools.org, SPARQ, working with the team, or ways you can support SPARQ, please email stanford_sparq@stanford.edu.
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people's lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Its work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the wellbeing of people and places.
The US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty consisted of 24 leading voices representing academia, practice, the faith community, philanthropy, and the private sector. The Partnership developed a collective ambition that all people achieve a reasonable standard of living with the dignity that comes from having power over their lives and being engaged in and valued by their community.
Image credit information can be found here
