Local Leaders Applaud New Investment in New York City, Other Metros

At Robin Hood’s No City Limits: Reimagining the Poverty Fight 2019 conference in Manhattan, The Robin Hood Foundation announced an ambitious new four-year $25 million initiative to develop sustainable paths to opportunity for low-income families in five U.S. communities: New York, Chicago, Baltimore, the San Francisco Bay area and Northeast Pennsylvania. The program, called Mobility Learning and Action Bets, or Mobility LABs, marks a new strategic pivot for the philanthropy, which previously has been focused on New York.

We spoke with the heads of two major New York City nonprofits about the impact of the new investment on poverty and opportunity in New York City and across the country. Phoebe Boyer is the president and CEO of Children’s Aid; Geoff Canada is the president of the Harlem Children’s Zone.