For far too many Americans, economic success is a function of gender, ability, location, race, and ethnicity. Despite widespread efforts to improve people’s financial security, job quality, health, housing security, and safety, integrated solutions remain elusive.

Many leaders across the economic mobility field have voiced the need for a new field-building initiative to address the disparate agendas, fragmented knowledge bases, and insufficient resources that undermine the field’s impact.

Over the course of an 18-month “build phase,” a group of field leaders convened to develop the blueprint for a Mobility Alliance. This catalytic field-building intermediary could foster relationships among diverse actors working across domains for impact, with the goal of advancing coordinated action toward economic justice.

The Mobility Alliance Build Phase

From mid-2023 through 2024, a diverse and dynamic community of field leaders convened to explore, design, and test ideas for this new field-building initiative.

The 18-month build phase was governed by a 16-member steering committee and staffed by an incubation hub composed of staff from the Urban Institute, Dalberg Advisors, and Common Future. 

Vision

The steering committee began by articulating a compelling vision that calls upon the nation’s economic and political systems to deliver on a framework of economic rights:

We envision an America that uplifts the economic well-being, power, and dignity of all its people, especially those historically excluded from prosperity. This vision demands that the nation’s economic and political systems enable all people to build intergenerational wealth and security, to feel safe and enjoy good health, and to live in welcoming communities that provide quality schools and a healthy environment.

Economic Rights Framework

To realize this vision, our nation’s economic and political systems must ensure the following:

• Everyone who wants to work has a quality job that pays a living wage and provides dignified working conditions, free from harassment.
• Everyone has sufficient income for a decent standard of living.
• Everyone has adequate wealth to invest in their future and access to sound banking and financial services.
• Everyone has a complete education that prepares them for work and life.
• Everyone lives in a decent and affordable home, secure from displacement.
• Everyone enjoys a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment.
• Everyone enjoys good health and well-being and has access to nutritious food and quality health care, including reproductive health.
• Everyone has a voice in governance and power to determine the future of their community.
• Everyone is served fairly and protected with justice by public institutions.

Guiding Principles

The steering committee also advanced a set of principles to guide collaborative action in service of their vision:

Hold and speak truth: We will name and intentionally address paradigms of exclusion. Because racism, sexism, and other prejudices have historically (and currently) excluded people from opportunity, collaborative efforts should acknowledge these harms while recognizing different groups experience these harms differently and using language that unites rather than divides.

Democratize power: We will trust, resource, and center those closest to the issues. Because dollars and decisions are too often concentrated and the wisdom of lived experience is too often dismissed, collaborative efforts should promote the priorities of leaders engaging most directly with people and communities, building vertical links that connect movements across local, regional, and national levels.

Sustain impact: We will support long-term systems change. Because short-term remedies cannot overcome a generational challenge, collaborative efforts should work both in place with local leaders and with national actors, building and sustaining durable and effective links among public-serving organizations to advance large-scale systems change.

Champion inclusion: We will build non-transactional and nontraditional coalitions. Because identity groups are too often pitted against each other to discourage solidarity, collaborative efforts should be intentional about bringing people together to collectively align on and advance systems that respond to and help everyone.

Funders

This work was made possible by support (through March 2025) from the Gates Foundation, with additional contributions from Blue Meridian Partners, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Omidyar Network. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission.

The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of Urban experts. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at urban.org/fundingprinciples