The RISE Together summit met for the third straight year Thursday to discuss innovative solutions to poverty.
The organization announced, alongside county and regional leaders, that they are now working with The Ohio State University's Kirwan Institute for the study of Race and Ethnicity under a new partnership. RISE Together is also continuing to work towards testing ideas such as using a universal basic income to combat poverty.
The summit took place in the downtown Columbus Hilton hotel's 5th floor ballroom and featured several speakers, including RISE Together CEO Danielle Sydnor, Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce and nationally-acclaimed author and tech entrepreneur Sevetri Wilson.
Sydnor spoke to WOSU before the summit began and said her organization is working with the Kirwan Institute, because it wants to tackle poverty through the lens of structural racism. The summit today also featured speakers whose talks focused on systemic racism.
Syndor said last year's partnership between Columbus City Council and local hospitals to forgive medical debt is one example of policies they want to continue. She said RISE wants to pilot a program to give citizens a set amount of money on a regular basis.
"The needs of our community have not decreased at all. It's becoming more expensive to live in a place like Columbus and Franklin County. And what we know is, if we don't invest early and often, we are just going to create a higher level of inequality that we will have a hard time even kind of regrouping from in the future," Sydnor said.
Sydnor said RISE Together and Smart Columbus partnered to help residents navigate social service resources and assist case managers with better technology. This venture received a $5 million funding boost from Columbus City Council this month and another $2 million from Franklin County.
Sydnor harkened back to the organization's goals to help people who are struggling with poverty or one day may have to. She said 59% of Franklin residents will experience poverty at some point in their lives.
"If you have an episode like losing your job or becoming ill, you're likely to struggle financially. And instead of falling all the way off of the ladder, we believe that we should have systems in place that mean maybe you just go down a rung," Sydnor said.
The institute will act as a research partner that supports RISE Together's work in the community.
Kirwan Institute Executive Director Ange-Marie Hancock started the day by presenting some research findings to the crowd of more than 100 people.
Hancock talked about redlining in Columbus, Ohio's Black Codes and other "systemic" policies that have impacted poverty amongst Black people and people of color. She said the way the county thinks about poverty also needs to move beyond Columbus.
"We only think about Columbus. Now, Columbus is a big part of Franklin County, but we know it is not the only part of Franklin County. And so we do want to think about it in a more comprehensive way," Hancock said.
RISE's partnership with the Kirwan Institute will go for three years and continue to work on Franklin County's Blueprint for Reducing Poverty, which led to the creation of RISE.
