Opportunity NYC was an experimental conditional cash transfer program (CCT) by the

Mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

. Announced in April 2007, it was the first CCT program to be launched in the United States. Its initial phases were funded by a number of private partners including

The Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

Robin Hood Foundation The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York City. The organization also administers a relief fund for disasters in the New York City area. In 2010, a key supporter gave ...

, the

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, Starr Foundation,

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, and Mayor Bloomberg's own Bloomberg Family Foundation.''Opportunity NYC Press Release'', New York: News from the Blue Room. NYC.gov, 18 June 2007
/ref> The program is being evaluated by

MDRC MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization based in New York City; Washington, DC; and Oakland and Los Angeles, California. History In 1974, the Ford Foundation and six government agencies together create ...

, a nonprofit research firm, using a random assignment research design. Opportunity NYC is administered by Seedco, a nonprofit community development organization. The program ended on 31 August 2010. The program hoped to build on the successes of similar programs that had garnered international recognition in the developing world, namely the

Bolsa Familia Bolsa or Pelota may refer to *Bolsa de Valores (disambiguation), a stock exchange in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries *Bank of London and South America *La Bolsa LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the U ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and a similar program, known as

Oportunidades ''Oportunidades'' (English: Opportunities; now rebranded as ''Prospera'') is a government social assistance program in Mexico founded in 2002, based on a previous program called ''Progresa'', created in 1997.

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

which is a 10-year-old aid initiative that has been credited with alleviating Mexico's direst poverty and makes demands on participants while offering small but meaningful cash rewards.Família: Changing the Lives of Millions in Brazil.'' The World Bank, Aug. 22 2007
/ref> The cash payments go to the family, almost always the mother or other female head of the household. Parents can receive from $40 to $100 a month if they keep up with responsibilities such as taking their children to the doctor or keeping them in school. The program has three components: an education, health and work component. The education component gave money for certain milestones, including $50/month for 95% high school attendance, $600 for each Regent exam passed by a high school student, and $25 per parent-teacher conference the parents attended."Opportunity NYC." Opportunity NYC. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. . The health component gave money for health related milestones, including $200 for each family member who received a non-emergency checkup from a doctor, and $200 upon completion of a pediatrician advised Early Intervention evaluation for a child under 30 months. The work component gives families $300 for someone working an average of 30 hours/week for 2 months, or between $300–$600 for completing an education or professional training course. The

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

, considers that "Conditional cash transfers provide money directly to poor families via a 'social contract' with the beneficiaries – for example, sending children to school regularly or bringing them to health centers. For extremely poor families, cash provides emergency assistance, while the conditionalities promote longer-term investments in human capital."LINDERT, Kathy. ''Bolsa Familia Program – Scaling-up Cash Transfers for the Poor.'' in ''MfDR Principles in Action: Sourcebook on Emerging Good Practices'', pp. 67-74, World Bank
Kathy Lindert is the chief economist at the

. Those on the right applaud the system because it relies on individual initiative and acts as an investment in the future: Children in the program are healthier, they stay in school longer and they grow up with a better chance to become productive citizens. Those on the left say the program helps stabilize troubled families and gives poor children more consistent access to society's benefits.McMAHON, Colin. ''NYC program will try to buy good parenting.'' Chicago: Chicago Tribune, 27 May 2007
/ref>

Results of Opportunity NYC

The program was constantly evaluated by MDRC, and data from the first two years of the program has been released, with the hope that research covering all 3 years of the program will be released in March 2011.Miller, Cynthia, James Riccio, and Jared Smith. A Preliminary Look at Early Educational Results of the Opportunity NYC – Family Rewards Program A Research Note for Funders. Rep. MDRC, 2009. Print. The data shows that the program, in terms of overall poverty, created the greatest improvement in reducing the share of families living in severe poverty from 30% to 17%, and increased the likelihood that parents had bank accounts. In terms of education, positive results were most seen in high school and less in elementary and middle school students. The program group was shown to have an increased likelihood of passing at least two Regents exams by 6%, and increased the likelihood of having a 95% or better attendance by 15%.Riccio, James. "Sharing Lessons from the First Conditional Cash Transfer Program in the United States." Policybrief22.pdf. National Poverty Center, Sept. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. . The effects of the program on improving heath was marginal, as the most significant statistic was an increase in the receipt of at least two preventative dental care visits by 10%. The program also had marginal effects in enhancing the parents' work and training, as it had a 2-3% greater likelihood of receiving a training certificate or associate degree.

Results of Opportunity NYC

See also

References

Further reading