Like so much in 2020, EMPath’s Disrupting the Poverty Cycle Conference looked a little different this year. From October 6-9, nearly 400 people from around the globe came together to discuss new strategies for disrupting poverty — only this time, it was entirely virtual.

The theme of this year’s conference, “20/20 Vision: The Future of Poverty Disruption,” sought to answer three questions:

1. What changes are happening in the world today that have significant import for the future of poverty disruption?
2. What are the implications of these changes for the economic mobility of America’s workers?
3. How do we adapt to these changes to strengthen our work?

The first day of the conference examined the future of work, technology & education. A welcome message from EMPath President & CEO Beth Babcock was followed by keynotes from Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Digital Economy Lab at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and Luke Tate, Managing Director of the Office of Applied Innovation at Arizona State University.

“Now more than ever we really need to connect with others who share our values,” said EMPath Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nicki Ruiz de Luzuriaga, who opened the event and introduced Babcock.

On the second day of the conference, which focused on the future of home & health, attendees heard a fireside Q&A on affordable housing from Chrystal Kornegay, Executive Director of MassHousing, and Maria Evans, Vice President of Fannie Mae’s Sustainable Communities Partnership & Innovation Initiative. Next, Bobby Milstein, Adjunct Associate Professor of Community Health Services at the Boston University School of Public Health, and Atheendar Venkatarami, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, discussed how opportunity, engagement, and economic resources enable health in a panel moderated by EMPath Board Member and Mass General Hospital Emergency Medical Specialist Alister Martin.

The final session of the day, “Place-Based Strategies to Promote Economic Mobility,” featured Adriana Chavarín-López and Michael Vea of San Diego Unified School District and Cheri Stonec of United Way of Bartholomew County. Both organizations shared their experiences adapting and implementing Mobility Mentoring®, EMPath’s economic mobility coaching approach, to fit the unique needs of the communities they work with.

The topic for the third day of the conference was “The Future of Counter Narratives.” For the day’s first time slot, attendees could choose from one of two concurrent sessions: “Flipping the Script: Oral Narrative Workshop” with Tom Mould, Professor of History & Anthropology at Butler University, or “Countering the Espoused Narrative: A DEI Examination of Organizational Culture” with Akuoma Nwadike, founder of Inclusivity Education.

Next, attendees had another choice of workshops to choose from: a small group conversation with a program participant from Episcopal Community Services (ECS) and ECS coach Teniquwa Cooper (moderated by EMPath mentor Diana Rojas), or a workshop on ethical story sharing for engaging people with lived experience, led by EMPath Director of Advocacy Chelsea Sedani and My Friend’s Place staff members Erin Casey and Jeff Katz.

Journalist, author, and producer Mary O’Hara closed out the day with her keynote, “Giving Voices to Those Experiencing Injustice.” She shared how her multi-platform storytelling initiative, Project Twist-It, seeks to change the narrative around poverty to “reflect the real, lived experience of people in poverty,” grounded in the belief that “people with lived experience should do the talking, rather than being talked about.”

The fourth and final day of the conference explored the future of philanthropy. Vu Le, founder of the popular blog NonprofitAF.com, and Shena Ashley, Vice President of Nonprofits & Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, kicked the day off with an engaging discussion on the harmful ways in which current philanthropy and fundraising practices perpetuate injustice through wealth hoarding, white saviorism, and donor centrism.

“We celebrate philanthropy without examining the damage caused by philanthropy,” Le shared. “In many ways, philanthropy has been charity-washing and conscious-laundering for rich people to hoard resources, money, and power that they often use for terrible things.”

Next came a panel on trust-based philanthropy with Philip Li, President & CEO of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Shaady Salehi, Director of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, and Jennifer Ching, Executive Director of North Star Fund, moderated by Nisha G. Patel, founder of Powered by Shakti. Panelists explained the philosophy of trust-based philanthropy, which seeks to address power imbalances in philanthropy by encouraging foundations to trust nonprofit and community leaders as the experts of their own work.

For the conference’s final keynote, New School Professor Darrick Hamilton shared a powerful message: “Wealth provides the financial agency and economic security for one to take risk… and the way wealth is created, it is wealth that begets more wealth. It is critical to note in American history that a white asset-based middle class never simply just emerged. Rather, it was government policy, and to a large extent literally government giveaways or entitlements, that provided whites with the finance, education, land, infrastructure in order to accumulate wealth and pass it down from one generation to the next.”

Hamilton urged attendees to “reimagine the society you want and commit to it.”

The conference ended with goodbye remarks from EMPath Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Mary Coleman and a surprise video message from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

“Thank you for the dedicated work you do every day to provide critical services to families everywhere,” Warren said.

A convening for members of EMPath’s global learning network took place during the two days prior to the conference. Human services organizations, government agencies, schools, health care organizations, and others from around the U.S. and several other countries gathered to connect with and learn from one another and to share insights, ideas, and questions around implementing EMPath’s coaching model.

Missed this year’s conference? Join us in 2022!