Champaign County Guaranteed Income Pilot (CCGIP)

Academic mentor: Christopher Larrison

Community partner: Regional Office of Education Nine (ROE9)

Project description: 
Between 2014 and 2020 an average of 565 school-age children per year in Champaign County were identified as homeless under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act by Regional Office of Education (ROE-9). The project is directed at children and families identified by the McKinney-Vento Act that meet the definition of asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed (ALICE) with a particular focus on Black, Latinx, Asian, and Mixed Race families.

The objectives are to design and evaluate a proof-of-concept project, the Champaign County Guaranteed Income Pilot (CCGIP). We hypothesize that, in addition to positive impacts on housing status and stability, receiving the CCGIP will improve family functioning and well-being and reduce child maltreatment via child neglect. The result in improved housing and family functioning is expected to translate into improved physical health, reduce mental illness, and improved educational outcomes for children.

There are three aims and three methods:

1. Develop a detailed demographic, social, and economic profile. We will use a survey of families currently identified under the McKinney-Vento Act in Champaign County to develop a profile.
2. Design the Champaign County Guaranteed Income Pilot. Working with the profile developed during Aim A, potential basic income recipients, community leaders, service providers, and researchers will be invited to collaborate in designing CCGIP. The focus is on three areas: 1) Level, duration, and method of cash transfers; 2) role of supplemental services; and 3) research methods.
3. Implement and evaluate the proof-of-concept version of CCGIP to allow for program expansion. We will offer six months of guaranteed basic income to 10 families identified as homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act and will collect data via surveys and interviews to allow for evaluation, refinement, and eventual expansion CCGIP.

Role of the Community-Academic Scholar:
By the end of this project, the Community-Academic Scholar will have a deeper understanding of families with school-age children experiencing homelessness in Champaign County. The scholar will have worked with individuals with lived experience of homelessness, service providers, and community members to develop a profile of McKinney-Vento families and design a guaranteed income intervention to meet their needs. The scholar will have worked with ten families to conduct a micro-pilot of a guaranteed income intervention and, at the end of the year, will help prepare to launch a full-scale Champaign County Guaranteed Income for  McKinney-Vento families. The scholar will gain skills in community-based research methods, interviewing, survey methods (development to analysis), and implementation and intervention measurement. The scholar will be involved in the qualitative and quantitative analyses associated with the data collected.