Family Independence Initiative
This is Encouraging! What & Why FII? What is FII? The Family Independence Initiative is a national center for innovating new strength based approaches for economic and social mobility that put people in the driver’s seat of their own change. Over this last decade FII has demonstrated that investing in people’s strengths and initiative delivers more powerful, sustainable, and cost effective outcomes for low-income families. Our strength-based approach, as radical and as old as our democracy, is inspired by the historical successes of poor communities in the U.S. See the Strategies for Change section for more about our work. Why FII? Because the Welfare System isn’t Enough For the last five decades the only support systems available to low-income families respond to people’s needs, not their strengths. The “safety net” approach is critical for those in crisis. But it is not a springboard out of poverty. As people make progress their “need” decreases and so do the