With your help, J-PAL North America can leverage the singular opportunity offered by the American Rescue Plan to reduce poverty across the United States.
Investment in evidence-based approaches is needed now more than ever as communities—particularly low-income communities and communities of color—rebuild from the pandemic.
The American Rescue Plan, which sets aside $350 billion for state, local, territorial and tribal governments, offers an unprecedented chance for policymakers to address not only short-term pandemic recovery needs, but also long-term systemic issues that perpetuate cycles of poverty.
How can policymakers ensure American Rescue Plan funding is spent effectively to help the communities that need it most?
Directing funds to implement evidence-based policies and evaluate ongoing programs can radically reduce poverty across the United States.
There is tremendous demand from states and cities for reliable evidence to guide their efforts to support their communities, and the US Department of Treasury is encouraging governments to devote American Rescue Plan funding toward evidence-based interventions.
When informed by rigorous research, state and local governments are better positioned to make difficult decisions about which policies to invest in.
As a research center based at MIT, J-PAL North America works to catalyze policy-relevant research and translate the results from randomized evaluations into action.
We support state and local governments by sharing research on key policy areas and generating further evidence through randomized evaluations.
Programs evaluated and found to be effective by J-PAL’s global network of affiliated researchers have been scaled to reach 540 million people worldwide since 2003.
J-PAL’s network of affiliated researchers has identified several existing programs that can address issues exacerbated by the pandemic.
These interventions, which span a range of social policy areas linked to poverty alleviation, are proven to:
- Address learning loss
- Increase housing stability
- Provide employment opportunities to youth and young adults
By leveraging flexible funding through the American Rescue Plan, governments can build program evaluations into new policies to learn the most effective ways of reducing poverty.
At the state and local level, J-PAL North America has partnered with policymakers and researchers to identify policy priorities ripe for testing in our State and Local Learning Agenda. We also build the capacity of municipalities to generate new evidence through our State and Local Innovation Initiative.
At the federal level, J-PAL staff contributed to the creation of the Office of Evaluation Sciences, which aims to improve the capacity of federal agencies to build and use evidence.
By increasing government capacity to conduct rigorous evaluations and utilize evidence at every level, we are helping governments harness evidence-based policymaking to improve the lives of the people and communities they serve.
Join us in our efforts to ensure that American Rescue Plan funds go towards cost-effective and evidence-based policies that reduce poverty across the United States.
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