“The work being done by our mentors and participants is directly impacting this work going on in Europe.” -Beth Babcock, EMPath President & CEO

The field of human services is changing – and the transformation is global.

Unfortunately, many programs and policies in our society are designed to treat people as less than full human beings. As we say at EMPath, “People are not cases to be managed.” But new ways of thinking are taking root – with far-reaching implications.

As EMPath’s coaching model, which is designed to address the effects of prolonged stress on problem-solving and goal-setting, continues to spread across the U.S., this breakthrough approach is making waves on the other side of the Atlantic too. Researchers from the European Commission – the administrative arm of the European Union – are looking to EMPath to inform social policy and transform programs. The Commission’s recent report, “Poverty and Mindsets: How poverty and exclusion over generations affect aspirations, hope and decisions, and how to address it,” draws upon behavioral psychology and economics research to examine the impacts of poverty, trauma, and oppression on human behavior and decision-making.

The publication marks a critical shift in the thinking underlying social policies in the EU. “This was the first time the European Commission really connected the dots between the impacts of the stresses of poverty, trauma, and oppression on the way people think and behave, with the fact that we need to alter policies and programmatic approaches to account for that,” says EMPath President & CEO Beth Babcock. “They’re also connecting the dots to how these stresses can affect people’s expectations for themselves and for each other. I’m thrilled that policymakers are applying science and theory to programs and policies.”

The report is designed to undergird a host of new reforms in the EU, and urges a shift in programming from traditional case management to long-term, goals-based economic mobility coaching like EMPath’s. Our model is cited in the paper as an exemplary approach to helping people in poverty climb the economic ladder, while outcomes data and research by EMPath and our partners lays the foundation for many of the report’s conclusions. Babcock also served as an expert advisor to the project.

“It is clear that tackling poverty requires a substantial investment in structural support,” the report’s authors write. “If a person is concerned about basic needs such as personal safety, shelter, food, this will inevitably draw on their entire mental capacity, occupy all of their cognitive bandwidth and leave no space for other planning.”

With many policies in place that don’t take this brain science into account and instead create enormous barriers to moving out of poverty – sometimes even penalizing people for getting ahead – change is certainly needed.

“We have oppressive policies that are designed with the offensive stereotype that people in poverty are there because they’re lazy or flawed,” Babcock explains. “But we’re seeing a revolution that’s becoming global. It’s a whole new way of thinking about the way we create economic mobility – that society needs to make it possible for people to accomplish their goals instead of setting up countless obstacles. We need to shift from case management to coaching. It’s an awareness that people deserve to drive their own lives forward, with policies and programs in place to facilitate that.”

Babcock emphasizes that the report and its subsequent initiatives wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of EMPath’s Boston staff. “The work being done by our mentors and participants is directly impacting this work going on in Europe,” she says.

In addition to increased investment in long-term economic mobility coaching, the report puts forth a number of recommendations for better addressing the effects of multigenerational poverty, many of which are key elements of EMPath’s programs – peer-group support, structured goal-setting, long-term programs with stable mentor relationships, bias training, a focus on strengthening the entire family, maintaining a growth mindset and high expectations, and designing approaches that improve executive functioning skills like decision-making, impulse control, and working memory. The paper also suggests improvements to childcare and early education, including preventing educational segregation, emphasizing social-emotional skills, and fostering safe, supportive environments.

EMPath’s work is just one part in a larger movement toward evidence-based human-centered policymaking and program design. The European Commission has committed 100 million Euros for pilot initiatives outlined in the report, including coaching programs – an exciting next step in applying this research beyond individual programs and organizations to impact government action.

“This report is evidence of people’s willingness to make major shifts in their thinking,” Babcock says. “I see that as incredibly promising.”

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