Abundant Community Initiative

No permission, philanthropy or professionals required. Mobilize small groups of 5-7 families to give directly and top up the income of a poor family to a minimum level required to provide stability, coupled with a circle of support to meet ad hoc needs and even longer term aspirations.

What is the Abundant Communities/Giving Circles Initiative?

What if a community of around 5-7 families committed to a providing a minimum income to a family who needs it, for a period of time to bring stability to their lives. For example, if a single mother with 2 kids is earning $1500 and the minimum income standard is $3000, then the giving circle tops up with $1500, meaning $300 per participant if there are 5 in the giving circle. This is like a community-contributed minimum income where financial responsibility is distributed across the giving circle. This way, money is given directly to families

In addition to financial support, the circle can also provide other forms of non-monetary support and can meet once every 2-3 months for this purpose. This will be a facilitated process where the family articulates their ad hoc needs and longer term goals, and circle members can volunteer to help in other ways, such as send the kids to school, or fixing the light bulb. There may be longer term goals such as trying to get a better job, or going back to school and the circle can offer advice or connections. See https://www.community-circles.co.uk/ for a model of how this works.

We are considering using mobile banking platforms such as https://welucy.com/ to allow for ease of transfer of money and transparency in the use of the funds.

[The possible name is a nod / tribute to classic work on Asset-Based Community Development https://www.abundantcommunity.com/; it can also be called Giving Circle. We can collectively decide on the name later on.]

Significance

• If financial assistance or salary is not enough to meet minimal standards of dignity, or allow for some margin of error before family falls into crisis, then topping up to minimum income can give stability to the family.
• Sometimes professionals make decisions or offer expert services to people who may not want or need them. Direct giving instead of donating to a charity can ensure more resources go to families in need (professional services are often expensive). And it helps families make autonomous decisions and recognizes that they are experts who know best what they need (example https://www.givedirectly.org/)
• A small group can be a meaningful unit of transformation. If the responsibility of care falls on an individual (whether a caregiver, professional social worker or volunteer befrienders/mentors) they are likely to be burdened by feeling responsible for complex structural issues with very little individual resources. Therefore, a small group can share the challenges and possibly joys of care. If the group is diverse, they can bring in a wider range of resources, expertise and experiences. The horizontal relationships formed by the circle members may also be beneficial to themselves.
• No permission is required to do this. No need to lobby the government, no need to wait for funders to approve. All you need is convince a few of your friends who have enough for themselves, to share this with others who do not have enough. There is enough abundance to make sure there is no poverty in our neighborhoods.
• The middle class families who decide to participate in giving can also reflect on their own consumption patterns, and even benefit from appreciating a simpler lifestyle given some experience seeing how money can be meaningfully used by a family who needs it more.

Guiding Principles

Managing the giver-recipient relationship can be tricky, and accidentally disempowering even when the intention is the opposite. While we have done some thinking about this, we will use this as a placeholder and overall guiding principle for now before we get into the details:

Audre Lorde: “If you have come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

How do you know if you are suitable to participate?

For receivers:

“I can receive help without feeling shame, knowing that my dignity is separate from my need."

For givers:

“I am able to give without any expectations. I can support accountability in others, but not hold them accountable. We can only hold ourselves accountable.”

Sign me up

If you are interested to co-create this initiative with other like-minded people, please contact:

justin.lee@nus.edu.sg

Once we have a core group of interested people, we hope to co-create the initiative and kickstart the project.