Applicants Poised To Learn Who Will Get Funds For Anti-Poverty Program

Thousands of low-income residents of Mercer County are about to find out if they have been chosen for a rare opportunity. 

More than 3,700 people have applied for a Guaranteed Minimum Income program through the non-profit Give Directly, which uses funds from wealthy benefactors to give cash benefits to those in need. 

An estimated 550 of the applicants will be selected to receive roughly $24,000 over 16 months. That’s $1,500 per month to use however they think is best. 

Those who are chosen will be notified by Nov. 12. 

Maria Young caught up with Jeff Atwood, a software developer who donated the funds for the program, to find out what he hopes the results will be.

This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. 

Young: So tell me how and why you got the idea for this program.

Atwood: Well, we were looking at the things that were happening in America and wondering, you know, well, ‘What can we do about it?’ We have resources. We’ve been fortunate. 

And I’m like, ‘Well, what’s the real problem here?’ And the more I looked at it, the more I thought, ‘Wealth concentration is at historic levels. And, how do you fix that?’ Let’s do more studies, because every study lifts people out of poverty. You know, you collect the data, you see what happens, and you make a credible scientific case for this is an effective way to help people in poverty. Perhaps even more effective than these 12 dozen different programs with all these requirements and all this bureaucracy. Why not just trust your fellow Americans and believe in them and see what they can accomplish? 

I had access to the American dream, for sure, and it wasn’t easy. I wasn’t given much and we were poor, and there was the alcoholism. It was not an easy path. But I just feel like, I don’t know if that path is still available to a lot of people anymore. And that’s not the America I really believed in, and I don’t want it to be that way. 

So I’m trying to be an example of what I want the world to be.

Young: It sounds like you had some bumps along the way. Can you tell me how you got to your version of the American dream?

Atwood: My dad was in the Air Force for a long time, but we settled down in Virginia. I went to the University of Virginia, which I paid for with Pell Grants. I worked as a Safeway cashier both in high school and college. And even that route, college is so expensive now. It’s just, so many routes are closed. You know, healthcare is very expensive, education is expensive. Owning a home is very expensive. Where are we going with all this? 

There’s so much concentrated wealth now. We’re in the second Gilded Age. There’s more money in the hands of fewer people than at any other time in American history, perhaps even the world’s history. I don’t want to live in a world full of angry people working four jobs just to survive. That’s no world to live in.

Young: One of the issues I think – in the really, really poverty stricken rural communities of West Virginia – is the lack of hope. That people just don’t see a way out. It’s not even a hand up or a hand out. They just don’t see a path to pull themselves up out of poverty. There’s so many challenges and barriers. What do you think this amount of money for one person or one family can do? Like, what’s your hope? Give me some ideas. 

Atwood: I want to show what’s possible if we invest in each other and actually trust each other that you know you want the same things I want.

Young: So how will you know 16 months from now, looking back on this program and looking at the results, how will you know it’s been a success or not been a success? What is your gage for that? 

Atwood: You know, there’s a bunch of different ways to look at that. One is like work hours. Not a huge fan of that, because work can be defined so many different ways. And plus, what about a woman that has time to raise her child and generates, you know, has a much more well adjusted child that feels really loved. That’s a much better outcome for that child. It’s not work hours, but it matters. And I think over time, this stuff adds up. 

Plus the economic injection we’ve spent locally, it connects people together. They help each other. You see some data all the time. That was the key piece of the data that really locked me in on seeing what percent of people it’s like, 26% of people, and they have nothing, are sharing with other people in similar situations on their own. They’re so generous. 

That was really striking, along with huge reductions in opioid and alcohol use, because you don’t feel like you need to escape from your life anymore. I don’t think people want to be on drugs or alcohol. It’s like they just see no way out of their life. So you’ve got to build a world that you don’t need to escape from. And this helps them do that. It’s a path forward. It’s, as you said, it’s hope. 

Young:  Does it feel a little awkward getting thanked so many times in one night?

Atwood: No, no, it doesn’t. I just hope it lives up to what they want it to be. And I think we’ve been honest about what it is, and  trying to keep it very simple, and provide agency and choice. But I do want to add the aspirational thing of like, ‘show us what you can do, because I think you can do an amazing things if given the opportunity.’ Because I know my dad did, my mom did, I did. And there’s so many talented people all over the country that are just kind of overlooked because they were born in the wrong area. I think all of America should be beautiful.