Terence Crutcher Foundation

PROJECT PURPOSE

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-existing living and health conditions disproportionately impacted the North Tulsa community due to centuries of systemic injustice amplified by a global pandemic. The pandemic worsened access to necessities, including housing, food, healthcare, and community interaction. As national research has shown, the pandemic disproportionately worsened public health outcomes in Black, Latino, and lower-income communities. These outcomes, caused by an unparalleled lapse in services, have widened the gap in Tulsa and made life for North Tulsans that much more difficult. Our proposed Economic Justice Hub (EJH) ? a collaborative of community-based organizations providing holistic service and care ? will meet our community?s needs by pairing them with proper economic resource navigation, leadership development, community defense, financial services, including paid mid-skill job training, trauma-informed mental health care, and community connection needed to restore this community. North Tulsa needs massive reinvestment in housing, job training, homeownership support, food access, education, and more. This hub serves as a holistic intervention for many of these factors. This initiative would show North Tulsa that the State of Oklahoma is interested in righting the wrongs that continue to resonate in this community dating back to 1921. This proposal is an economic justice project that centers on repair, respect, and investment that have been stripped from this community for more than a century.

EVIDENCE

The neighborhood in which a family lives predicts their economic outcomes. Research establishes five-strong neighborhood-level predictors of a child?s upward economic mobility: family structure in the neighborhood, its level of income inequality, the vibrancy of social capital and networks, access to quality education, and the degree of racial and economic segregation in the surrounding area. With income inequality and the racial wealth gap ballooning, strengthening the conditions within under-resourced neighborhoods so that their residents can thrive not only is a moral imperative but an economic necessity. This Economic Justice Hub is an evidence-based approach to create equitable recovery.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

According to a 2019 Human Rights Watch report, the two communities experiencing disproportionate poverty include Black Tulsans and North Tulsans at a rate of 1 in 3 people. The Tulsa Equality Indicators demonstrate that the median household income for South Tulsans is twice that of North Tulsans- in the targeted census tract for this program, it?s $33,470. Low-income Tulsans are 70% more likely to have more than 14 mentally unhealthy days in a month than higher-income Tulsans. The Indicators also note that racial disparities in economic mobility and health were significantly worse in 2021 than in 2020.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

We utilized a logic model to outline output and outcome measurements for project performance. We collect demographic, referral, case resolution, and economic data to measure our impact. This is accomplished through surveys, intake forms, resolution/outtake forms, self-reporting, and observational data from staff, community partners, and clinicians. We will collect this information and data each time services are rendered and each time programs begin and end.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma