I’ve always been “the other Maria.”
It’s a moniker I hold dear — and at Horizons 2024: The Power of Us, Presented by Jobs for the Future (JFF), I held it ever close.
At Horizons, JFF CEO Maria Flynn led a mobilizing, electrifying two days of mission moments and mic drops; six members of the REDF posse and I soaked up every minute.
From ways to leverage AI with a true human-centered lens (“We’re bullish on humans. We’re pro human. We want to explore what’s possible for humans and not “what’s left” for them.” Aneesh Raman, Chief Economic Opportunity Officer, LinkedIn)…
… to the power we hold to “build up communities while we build up bridges” (Rachel Korberg, Executive Director, The Families & Workers Fund)…
… to the ways in which we can accelerate economic connectedness across class to drive greater access and opportunity (“Economic connectedness across class — or the social capital a low-income person has with people in higher economic classes — is the single largest predictor of economic mobility.” Raj Chetty, William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics at Harvard University)…
… we reveled in all the learnings in a space that felt both urgent and spacious all at the same time.
For all of these reasons, we’re particularly proud to partner with JFF as a founding member of their 75 Million Network, a growing coalition of public, private, and purpose sector changemakers dedicated to JFF’s North Star:
By 2033, 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs.
We are honored to walk in lockstep with this network and help contribute to this goal through the increasing power of employment social enterprise.
This conversation is timely because the REDF community has been dreaming together. Dreaming about what the world looks like when millions more people overcoming tough barriers to employment experience economic power — or the access and opportunity to build wealth in ways that let them live their best life.
These few days together at Horizons gave us all the feels, summed up poetically by author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates who said “People who truly love are really dangerous,” because there is no limit to their dreams or their deeds when pursuing a deeply felt need for justice.
So true.
So this Maria is happy to follow my fellow Maria in being pretty damn dangerous. Because it’s not just about the 75 million people in quality jobs, it’s about what becomes possible for the generations around and beyond them, their joy, and their sense of possibility, too.
Let’s go.
Maria Kim
