An Intro to the Thrive Central Florida: Economic Stability Impact Fund
by Alexis P. Tsoukalas, MSSA; 2020-2021 Thrive Economic Stability Fellow
Economic stability is one of five pillars of Thrive Central Florida, which are areas for Central Florida Foundation to focus its philanthropic and community efforts to make the community a flourishing and equitable place for everyone. Given that Thrive is a relatively new initiative of the Foundation, born amid the economic and social devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a deeper understanding of “economic stability” is in order.
All of the Thrive pillars are modeled on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Because social problems are notoriously complex, these pillars overlap in several areas. In many ways, economic stability underscores nearly every social issue Central Floridians face. Before pursuing my Ph.D. and a career in policy, I worked directly with Floridians who were often marginalized and struggling to live healthy, productive lives. Whether it was families in the child welfare system, young adults experiencing homelessness, or older adults facing hunger and isolation, a painful reality emerged–lack of economic stability underscored nearly every barrier my clients faced to lifelong well-being.
Defining Economic Stability
But what do we mean by “economic stability?” Broadly speaking, economic stability can be defined as having sufficient income and the ability, skills/experience, or “decent work” to sustain it. This means meeting—at a bare minimum—one’s basic needs and those of their dependents (e.g., children), including the ability to weather unexpected or intermittent financial hardships. The United Nations explains “decent work” as “opportunities for everyone to get work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development, and social integration.”
The four economic stability focus areas Thrive emphasizes within the Central Florida area include: eliminating poverty, eradicating hunger, ensuring decent work and economic growth, and sustaining industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
For the most part, Thrive is concerned with improving personal economic stability–the situations that individual people and households face. That being said, Thrive recognizes personal economic stability is tied to the economic health of the larger Central Florida community, so it is important to understand local residents within their broader context. In social work, we call this the person-in-environment approach. Public health has a similar concept, social determinants of health. Overall, these lenses emphasize that our personal well-being is tied up in others’, which ripple through the communities in which we live, work, study, and leisure.
With this understanding in mind, please explore our Central Florida scorecard on economic stability and white paper on the region’s most pressing needs and how our community can address them.
“The only true and sustainable prosperity is shared prosperity.”
–Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate economist and professor
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
