Jordan Institute for Families
Promoting Tax Credit Uptake to Reduce Poverty in NC
CORE TEAM
Katherine Bryant, Allison De Marco, Todd Jensen, Paul Lanier, Yvette Thompson, and Sarah Verbiest (Director)
Since its founding in 1996, the Jordan Institute for Families’ (JIF) mission has been to cultivate safe, stable, nurturing families over the life course. This work spans an array of interrelated initiatives — in maternal health, racial equity, home visiting, children’s mental health, youth in foster care, and preschool suspensions and expulsions, to name a few.
The Institute’s efforts to connect community knowledge with social work research, policy, and practice remain firmly rooted in equity and engagement. JIF is leading efforts to promote these values via major outreach venues such as the National Convening of Equity-Centered Wellness, which is driving advancements in equitable preconception and reproductive health, and the UNC Race, Racism, and Racial Equity Symposium, a recurring virtual event that has already reached over 5,000 researchers and community members nationwide.
“In all our work we strive to center the voices of those closest to the issues under study and truly value their expertise,” said Dr. Allison De Marco, JIF’s Equity Lead. “Only in this way can we have a lasting and authentic impact on the families and children of North Carolina.”
A recent JIF initiative engaged some of the nearly four million rural and small-town North Carolinians in efforts to understand how to increase claims of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in these communities. A federal benefit historically successful at lifting families out of poverty, the EITC remains unclaimed by more than 20% of eligible households in North Carolina, leaving $450 million on the table annually.
Thanks to participating in this project, we were inspired to establish a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Site in our community. In our first VITA season, MATCH assisted 72 economically vulnerable families in accessing approximately $120,000 in EITCs, Economic Impact Payments, and Child Tax Credits. This program is a tangible way to break down financial barriers and provide stability and opportunity to low-income families.
AMY STEVENS,
MATCH Program Manager, Mission McDowell Hospital in Marion, NC
Increasing EITC claims represents a powerful means of increasing equity statewide in North Carolina, where, due to job loss and lack of economic opportunity, many rural families experience or are at elevated risk of poverty, which can negatively impact physical health, behavioral health, and economic outcomes across the life course. Reducing the risk of poverty is particularly important for North Carolina’s families of color, many of whom live in the state’s rural communities, as these families face additional inequities that impede their financial advancement.
JIF, ncIMPACT, MDC Rural Forward, Together Transforming Lives, Inc. and teams of local community partners conducted a mixed methods study that reviewed seven years of county-level tax data and talked to over 130 community leaders to identify individual, community, and systemic influences on EITC access and use. This work was completed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
JIF’s close contact with the state of North Carolina’s communities brought to light key insights for promoting EITC claims among the state’s diverse populations. For instance, families with mixed documentation status need more trusted community volunteers to guide them through the complexities of access in their native language. Promoting EITC requires improving trust in government programming in some communities, as well as sharing information about EITC early in the tax year, including information that allows people to easily determine their eligibility.
To translate these findings into impact, the research team has shared their findings with groups like the NC Perinatal Health Equity Collective and the NC Home Visiting Consortium, which are already well connected to EITC-eligible households.
Moving forward, JIF will pursue an agenda to create more financial and structural supports for NC’s families — a need clearly voiced by the communities involved in JIF’s EITC initiative. “Financial stability and other structural supports provide a solid foundation for cultivating and sustaining family well-being in the long term,” said Dr. Todd Jensen, JIF’s Family Research and Engagement Specialist. “They’re key to the goals of the families we serve.”
by Jordan Wingate
The Big Picture
- In recent years, the team has worked with nine doctoral students and 17 master’s and undergraduate students
- In the past six years, JIF has secured $5.7 million in grants and contracts to support projects that advance its mission
- JIF Director Sarah Verbiest co-founded the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center, which has brought $18.3 million in funding to UNC in the past three years
- JIF has led seven 21-Day Racial Equity Challenges, reaching more than 1,200 people
- Parent-designed websites – newmomhealth.com and saludmadre.com – launched by the 4th Trimester Project (a partnership between JIF, the School of Medicine, and a growing network across the country) have reached over 400,000 birthing people
Advancing equity. Transforming systems. Improving lives.
UNC School of Social Work
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building
325 Pittsboro Street | Campus Box 3550
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550