WOMEN'S OPPORTUNITY FUND

Women's Opportunity Fund
In 2023, Tipping Point Community, in partnership with Bienestar Community Economics, set out to design a novel demonstration project to support working women living in the Bay Area to advance in their careers, generate assets, and build wealth.
Bienestar supported this initiative in a variety of ways:
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We facilitated an 8 session design series with a total of 9 design partner organizations and 5 community participants and hosted 2 community design sessions with participants in Bay Area earn and learn training cohorts.
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We conducted a literature review and landscape analysis focused on proposed pilot strategies and their effect on outcomes tied to earn and learn program access, retention, and completion and wealth building; workforce and labor market data; and implications within the policy environment.
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We interviewed dozens of Bay Area workforce training providers, wealth building service providers, local and national subject matter experts and researchers, and policy advisors.
The result of the research and design process is The Women’s Opportunity Fund demonstration project. The demonstration project pairs previously siloed employment programs focused on Earn and Learn models with financial capability programs. The project design includes cash assistance through the duration of the training program to apply towards living costs that are cited as a significant barrier for women; financial support for a 12-month period to transition to employment; and a one-time lump sum payment for asset-building activities required to establish wealth (e.g., establish savings accounts, address debt, purchase a car for travel to work).
Success from this demonstration would provide needed evidence to tie these fields together while identifying specific, current policy issues that can be addressed.
The Women’s Opportunity Fund: Synthesis of Research Design and Findings outlines the research and design process that informed development of the demonstration project and can help other practitioners and agencies interested in designing similar initiatives or projects in the future.
The Women’s Opportunity Fund: Demonstration Project Implementation Blueprint can be used as a standalone report and serves as the foundation for those seeking a starting point to establish a project of this nature.
REGION
Bay Area, California
DATE
2023–2024
CLIENT
