For immediate release: August 23, 2022
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta will partner with community organizations this year to launch Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster (CLIFF) Dashboards to help people overcome benefits cliffs.
Better understanding benefit cliffs, a term that describes a barrier for low-income families trying to improve their economic status, can increase the workforce participation rate by helping residents make informed decisions to enter or reenter the workforce and achieve self-sufficiency. This fits into the Atlanta Fed's mission to make the economy work for everyone.
"The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is excited to partner with organizations to provide the benefit cliff tool," said David Altig, executive vice president and director of research at the Atlanta Fed. “The tool can be used to help workers make informed decisions, reduce uncertainty, and ensure everyone has an opportunity to participate fully in our economy."
The Atlanta Fed's recent benefits cliff partners are:
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Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) – The CWDC, also supported by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kanas City, will use the CLIFF tool to provide workforce center professionals, job coaches, and case managers the information they need to help clients better understand how changes in employment and/or wages may affect the public benefits they receive. With this information, clients can make more-informed decisions about their careers. The tool will strengthen the state's talent pipeline, and, by extension, its economy by introducing Coloradans to career pathways and by helping them connect to growing industries that need workers. To learn more about how CWDC is using the CLIFF tool, visit the CWDC guide to using the CLIFF tool
.
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CareerSource Florida – CareerSource Florida launched the Florida CLIFF Dashboard, a digital tool to help Floridians who receive public assistance search for a path to prosperity, earlier this year. The development and launch of the Florida CLIFF Dashboard align with tenets of the state's landmark Reimagining Education and Career Help (REACH) Act, which positions Florida to help people with barriers to education and employment become self-sufficient through enhanced access to good jobs and career pathways that offer economic opportunity. For information about Florida's CLIFF Dashboard, please view the news release on careersourceflorida.com, the Florida CLIFF Dashboard video
, or the Dashboard at floridacliffdashboard.com.
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Women's Foundation for the State of Arizona (WFSA) – The WFSA, also supported by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, is piloting the CLIFF tool for Arizonans who are currently accessing public benefits in Cochise, Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties. The dashboard will be piloted by five Arizona nonprofits: Dress for Success Phoenix, JobPath, Our Family Services, Sahuarita Food Bank, in partnership with Pima County's Community and Workforce Development Department, and Unlimited Potential. It will be used to help individuals and agencies make informed choices about in-demand career pathways, predict potential changes to public assistance based on increased earnings, and improve personal economic security for families. To learn more about the dashboard, please visit The Women's Foundation for the State of Arizona.
The CLIFF tool is part of the Atlanta Fed's Advancing Careers for Low-Income Families initiative, which conducts research on benefits cliffs and develops tools to support community and state efforts to improve economic security for families and meet the talent needs of businesses for a healthy economy.