Statement from Sharon Sobol Jordan, United Way of Greater Cleveland’s President & CEO
March 25, 2024 — “We applaud Cleveland City Council on the introduction of Universal Basic Employment legislation, which includes funding for the two-year research and development phase of a UBE pilot to help improve the lives of Cleveland residents living in poverty. If passed, Devin H. Cotten, Founder and CEO of Universal Basic Employment, will lead this work in partnership with United Way of Greater Cleveland.
We thank Cleveland City Councilwoman Howse-Jones, Cleveland City Council President Griffin, and Cleveland Mayor Bibb for their leadership in advancing this legislation. Cleveland is the first city in the nation to do so.
At United Way of Greater Cleveland, we support innovative approaches aimed at advancing income and wealth building in our community. Supporting UBE is our most recent efforts to help develop, launch, or scale promising solutions. Previous innovation partnerships include FamilySpace, the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, Louise C. Stokes Scholar House, and Right to Counsel-Cleveland. Joining forces with the UBE team and other cross-sector partners would give us the opportunity to demonstrate how offering better financial security through meaningful employment impacts the trajectory of a person’s income and wealth going forward. We look forward to the passage of this legislation and are encouraged that it has received strong bipartisan support.”
More about UBE
- Universal Basic Employment (UBE) is a public policy initiative formed in 2022 to demonstrate that a federal jobs guarantee can eliminate poverty and be a stop payment on its many symptoms. Visit https://ubemployment.org
- Learn more about UBE on Thursday, April 4, at noon, during United Way’s Community Conversation entitled, Imagining a New Path to Prosperity in Cleveland: Universal Basic Employment, with panelists’ Devin Cotten and Emily Campbell, President and CEO of The Center for Community Solutions, moderated by Abbey Marshall, Government Reporter at Ideastream Public Media. Registration is available here and required to participate”
