BY: RACHEL SCHNEIDER, CEO, CANARY
Today, Uber announced the Path to Safety Grant Circle. The Grant Circle gives drivers and delivery workers grants of up to $750 each if they are experiencing domestic or intimate partner violence and need help paying for its inevitable economic shock waves. Almost all (99%) of survivors of domestic violence also experience economic abuse. Their abusers control the money. They limit access to the bank accounts, credit cards and paychecks that enable the individual experiencing abuse to walk out the door, pay rent in a new place and buy those first meals for themselves, and often their children, on their own.
Canary was founded because the right money, at the right time matters.
This program is one of the most painful possible examples of why that statement is true. That’s why we are proud to implement this program with Uber and FreeFrom, a leading organization focused on the economic impact of gender-based violence. Today, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 transgender people experience physical and/or sexual violence or harassment by a current or former intimate partner in their lifetime. The path to safety for any one individual is complicated, and often arduous. The terrifying scale of this problem shows how deep of a challenge is in front of all of us to ensure that no people, ever, are subject to violence in their own homes or violence as a result of their gender. These grants alone will not solve this problem.
But the money helps. On average, FreeFrom finds that survivors report needing approximately $700 to get to immediate safety. Receiving these funds can be an important step in the right direction.
Giving these funds is also a step in the right direction.
Who should provide the first $700 someone may need to find a new path or deal with an immediate crisis? Is it purely the job of philanthropy? Is it the work only of local nonprofits, or religious organizations? Do we rely on the government? Or, are moments of crisis solely for extended family or friends to step in and help?
At Canary, we think supporting each other during a crisis is the work of all of us. Any community of people, whether they are brought together by their work or their faith or their geographic proximity, can be a true community of support. The diversity within workplaces means that they have extraordinary capacity and potential to be communities through which we can bolster each other’s wellbeing, financial and otherwise.
The Great Resignation is making that case loud and clear. People want to work for companies where they are valued. They want to know that their needs and identities as full people are seen and appreciated. That means that companies need to think more expansively about the ways that people might be suffering, striving or growing, and they need to act more creatively to support their workforce in those moments. Companies have a particular responsibility to support those who are most vulnerable or who have been historically discriminated against. Especially now, with a workforce that’s more diverse than ever, this needs to include meeting the needs of the millions of individuals who experience intimate partner violence during their lifetime.
Providing financial help, delivered efficiently and with dignity, can enable working women and transgender people to put one front in front of the other. The Path to Safety Grant Circle provides a powerful model of how to do this, which we hope many more companies will follow.
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If you want to learn more about how cash grants can help your employees, natural disaster or not, click here to learn more about Grant Circle today.
