Mobility LABs
Mobility Learning and Action Bets (Mobility LABs) is a pioneering initiative focused on empowering and enabling communities to develop solutions that holistically address economic success, power, autonomy, and belonging.
Economic and racial barriers make it difficult for people to access pathways out of poverty—and too often, impacted communities aren’t empowered to create solutions. Mobility Learning and Action Bets (Mobility LABs) is a pioneering initiative focused on empowering and enabling communities to develop solutions that holistically address economic success, power, autonomy, and belonging.
In 2019, Mobility LABs granted nine anchor community partner organizations $125,000 in planning grants to develop a community-designed pilot project addressing impediments to local economic mobility, while also focusing on how to shift the narrative about poverty. Each partner then received $1.58 million dollars over 3 years to implement the project. Mobility LABs is now entering the final year of its four-year initiative. Mobility LABs is a partnership of major donors, including The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Tipping Point Community, and the Gates Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
Our Impact
$8.96
M
In funds disbursed by Mobility LABs to date
$10.9
M
In additional funds influenced and funneled into anchor partners' communities
$300
K
Of funding granted for hyper-local community-driven narrative change solutions
Our Strategy
Mobility LABs supports sustainable poverty-fighting solutions by:
Supporting diverse demonstration communities: Mobility LABs anchor partners work in nine geographically diverse communities, including urban, suburban, and rural settings, where Robin Hood and its philanthropic partners have commitments. This multi-faceted diversity allows for us to incubate truly impactful solutions for economic mobility while providing space to incubate and scale solutions in New York City and beyond.
Promoting shared-learning: Establishing, building, and maintaining trust is a foundational precept of Mobility LABs’ approach to working with the communities our anchor partners serve. Periodic convenings create a community of practice amongst the nine anchor partners as a learning cohort, and continuous feedback loops between anchor partners and the Mobility LABs’ team facilitate and sustain trust, allowing the space for collaborative, community-centered priorities, and solutions to be discussed, framed, designed, and executed.
Meet our Nine Anchor Partners
Bronx Defenders—a Bronx Leadership & Organizing Center (BLOC) member and Robin Hood Mobility LABs partner
JobsFirst NYC—a Brownsville Hub Cooperative member and Robin Hood Mobility LABs partner
Brownsville Hub Cooperative
Brownsville Hub Cooperative is a community-based hub—with JobsFirst NYC, CBEDC, Youth Design Center, and Brooklyn Community Justice Center—that has developed and facilitated solutions to economic mobility through workforce development, youth leadership, community investment, and advocacy in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Co-leads of the Undo Poverty: Flushing Collaborative—a Robin Hood Mobility LABs partner
Undo Poverty: Flushing Collaborative
Undo Poverty: Flushing Collaborative—co-led by the Chinese-American Planning Council, Asian Americans for Equality, Child Center of NY, MinKwon Center for Community Action, Queens Public Library, and the River Fund—seeks to create community-centered solutions that lift Flushing families and individuals out of poverty.
Robin Hood Mobility LABs leadership meeting with Community Economic Development Association of Cook County (CEDA)—a Robin Hood Mobility LABs partner
Commission and Economic Development Association of Cook County (CEDA)/Uplift Harvey
Based in Harvey, IL, CEDA’s Uplift Harvey project, part of Robin Hood Mobility LABs, tackled mobility gaps with youth programs in leadership, career pathways, and employment. Students gained skills in advocacy, resume writing, and summer jobs—empowering the next generation of leaders.
Commission on Economic Opportunity/Northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA) Mobility LABs
The NEPA project, part of Robin Hood Mobility LABs and led by the Commission on Economic Opportunity, boosts economic mobility in PA with Parent Pathways, employer partnerships, the NEPA Mobility Tracker, and an Advocacy Academy focused on driving community-led policy change.
Center for Urban Families/Baltimore Communities Assisting and Advancing Neighbors (BCAAN)
BCAAN in Baltimore, part of Robin Hood Mobility LABs and led by the Center for Urban Families, connects residents to job readiness programs, advocacy workshops, leadership training, and community grantmaking—empowering neighbors to lead change in the Penn North community.
RCF Connects/Mobility LABs of East Contra Costa
RCF Connects (now Comment Studios) in Antioch, CA, part of Robin Hood Mobility LABs, built community through leadership trainings, coaching, advocacy for Guaranteed Income, and a micro-pilot providing monthly cash gifts to adults and transitional-age youth.
SOMOS Mayfair/Si Se Puede Collective (SSPC)/Jobs to Grow
SOMOS Mayfair’s Si Se Puede Collective in East San Jose, part of Robin Hood Mobility LABs, launched Jobs to Grow, supporting entrepreneurs with business workshops, advocacy for home-based food businesses, career pathways, and Community Navigators offering case management.
Young Community Developers (YCD)/Community Economic Mobility Vehicle (CEMVe)
Young Community Developers’ CEMVe in Bayview, CA, part of Robin Hood Mobility LABs, connects residents to resources via a mobile unit offering workshops on financial literacy, job readiness, and health, plus leadership opportunities through local advocacy and food distribution.
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Our Implementation
Year 1
The Year 1 implementation report documents the nine Mobility LABs projects’ activities and impact of those activities in Implementation Year 1 (early 2021 and into 2022). In Year 1, the Mobility LABs anchor partners focused on establishing the foundation for long-term, sustainable economic mobility in their communities. Building from the planning phase, the foundational work included 1) engaging and building relationships with local, trusted, and experienced cross-sector community-based organizations; in many cases, formalizing those relationships into partnerships, and 2) engaging and building relationships and trust with local community residents through various forms of outreach and engagement and through the provision of programs and services to develop skills and meet immediate needs.
Year 2
The Year 2 implementation report documents the changes resulting from the community-driven mobility strategies implemented across the nine Mobility LABs projects during Year 2 (spring 2022-spring 2023) of the initiative and reports how communities hope to sustain the work. Findings are based on data collected through 1) a survey of anchor partners (“Learning Tool”) designed to understand strategies and outcomes, and 2) interviews with individuals in each community including anchor partner staff leading the Mobility LABs work, staff members from their partner organizations, and residents involved in work groups, programming, and other activities.
Final Report
In this third and final report, we offer key learnings from Robin Hood’s Mobility Learning and Action Bets (Mobility LABs), a five-year initiative advancing community-driven economic mobility. In the final year, the Mobility LABs work continued to expand and refine across the nine diverse communities, always centering trust, collaboration, and resident leadership to create lasting change. This final report highlights essential strategies for sustainable economic mobility, including deep community engagement, centering community voice, shifting power, and the role of philanthropy in supporting grassroots solutions.
