Here & Now

Noon Wednesday: Wisconsin Project Aims To Raise Middle Class

Marisa Wojcik:

Welcome to Noon Wednesday, I’m Marisa Wojcik, multimedia journalist with Here & Now on PBS Wisconsin. So, a local competition is setting a goal of raising the net income of the middle class, and it’s called DreamUp Wisconsin. It has seven semi-finalist proposals, advancing for the opportunity for one million dollars in funding. So joining us from the UW Institute for Research on Poverty is DreamUp Wisconsin’s community relations coordinator Bridgit Van Belleghem.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yep.

Marisa Wojcik:

Thanks so much for being here.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Thank you for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

So, I want to start with, where was the concept for DreamUp Wisconsin dreamt up?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Okay, so, initially, it all started with Schmidt Futures. Eric and Wendy Schmidt have a foundation that is designed to build talent and advance your prosperity across the country, and so they approached public universities with the challenge of 10,000 households increase their net income by 10% by, at the time, 2020. This round is 2022, since we are further along in time. And so the University of Wisconsin was one of the universities to answer that call, and we branded our local initiative DreamUp Wisconsin.

Marisa Wojcik:

And, Schmidt Futures is just kind of a philanthropic organization, former Google CEO.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Exactly.

Marisa Wojcik:

So, expand on what the goals of this project are. Who’s impacted? Just kind of some more meat of like, what is DreamUp Wisconsin hoping to do with this goal of increasing income for 10,000 households by 10% by now 2022.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Right. So, the big pictures goals are to help advance this type of social innovation thinking within public university systems, to invest more money in the middle parts of the country and not just the coasts, especially in the tech innovation and social innovation sectors, and also then to have the benefit of helping the people in those regions, and hopefully ideas that can be replicated across the country could be generated here. So the ideas would be to pick issues that are important to the community, and focus on getting the grand challenge met, in some part, through this catalytic funding that Schmidt Futures is offering. So, if we can help reduce the cost of childcare, or help people access benefits to improve their expenses related to childcare. Or, for example, the winner from last year, is focusing on civil/legal barriers and how to remove those from people so that they don’t have as many barriers to jobs and earn income. So, however we can, either by eliminating expenses or by increasing real dollars in people’s pockets, we want to make a positive impact on people’s bottom line, to help them not be in the red and get into the black.

Marisa Wojcik:

And when you say not be in the red and get to the black, I read that also includes by one family being positively impacted, you can negatively impact another family. That seems like a tough challenge.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

It is a tough challenge, but that is something that is very important to our team here, especially locally. We don’t want to increase disparities in the region or take from others so that somebody else can prosper. Ideally we can come up with solutions that benefit everybody, or at least don’t hurt other people.

Marisa Wojcik:

And so, it’s centered around Dane County specifically, but it’s called DreamUp Wisconsin, so why Dane County specifically?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

So, initially, Dane County is, in itself, a pretty big lift. There’s lots of people doing great work here, so to reach out within what was really a really fast timeline, it was decided that Dane County would be a good focus. If we get the chance to move forward, we can explore opening it up more, but it’s really too soon to say. But that’s definitely something we’ve discussed, and could potentially incorporate into future routes, if there are any.

Marisa Wojcik:

And, Dane County also kind of, is a little bit of a proxy, in some ways. There’s a variety of people, demographics in Dane County, that can somewhat be representative of the rest of the state.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Right, and if we can make something work here, then the potential to have it work outside of this region is very strong. And we can take it to the Milwaukee area, Green Bay, the western half of the state, and really help, sort of replicate what we did here for other people across the state.

Marisa Wojcik:

So, who is involved in the project? It’s the university, UW Madison, who else?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Nationally there’s three other universities: Arizona State, the University of Utah, and the Ohio State University. And then locally, it’s the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, now known as COWS, and the Center for Financial Solutions, also a UW institute, and the community relations on campus, those are our core UW group, and then we do our best to reach out into the community and tap into the resources that are already here and not recreate the wheel, so we pulled in StartingBlock, gener8tor, Collaboration for Good, other university programs that are kind of working in this social innovation and start-up entrepreneurial realm to help our teams improve their pitch to Eric Schmidt at the end of the process. So we do our best to really bring in the resources in the region to highlight and amplify these proposals that come in to us.

Marisa Wojcik:

So the proposals that are coming in to you are submitted by these partners or by people in the community? Who-

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Mostly by people in the community, right.

Marisa Wojcik:

Okay.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

So, non-profits have submitted them, we’ve had some were entrepreneurial, submittals, we’ve had a student competition that we did this year, so we had a student submission, and so, you know, we welcome them from anybody really.

Marisa Wojcik:

So it sounds like, by the people who are impacted, are the people who are submitting ideas for, “Hey, this is the problem, and this is what I see as the solution?”

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yeah, either they are directly part of that, or they help service, provide services for people who might take advantage of such programs. So, on the entrepreneurial side, for example, if you work in an industry, you saw that there was a gap there, then they could be on both sides of that coin, right? Both affected by that and also could impact others that aren’t necessarily themselves. So I would say yes, both/and on that.

Marisa Wojcik:

So it’s a project that’s been around for almost a couple years, you’ve already had one cycle, one round completed, so what was the outcome of that? What were the proposals that were finally selected, what happened?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Great, so we, the four universities, each got to advance one or two projects, and our university, two of our projects were selected, so we got two of the five slots, which was a big

Marisa Wojcik:

Oh, wow.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Hooray for us, right? And then those two teams went and pitched to Eric Schmidt and his team in New York last June. Of those two Leveraging Legal Innovations for Transforming Dane, which is the civil/legal barriers one I mentioned earlier. They won a million dollar prize, and the We Care for Dane Kids, a four-pillar childcare innovation strategy was awarded a second place prize of $300,000. So we were able to bring that money to the community and to them, and they’re both in the thick of things, trying to roll out their programs and accomplish what they set out to do with their proposals.

Marisa Wojcik:

So, they’re kind of still in the launching phase?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yes, these funds are very catalytic, so they’re looking for ideas at this stage, and want to give them money to help take them to the next level. So the Lift program has a request for proposals out right now to develop the technology that they pitched to Eric Schmidt in June.

Marisa Wojcik:

And technology is kind of a part of the criteria that you’re looking for with these proposals, so like, can you give us an example of how Lift does that?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yeah. So, they are seeking to compile several sources of public data that are typically used against people in looking for jobs or housing for example, and turn that around and provide a, let’s see, sort of like a snapshot of the issues that somebody might have and help them through automated forms and other more efficient ways of dealing with legal issues, tackle those problems. Several of them don’t always appeal to lawyers because they don’t make much profit off the process, so if they can make the legal process a lot more simple, then they can help more people through pro bono programs at times. So they can increase their capacity of what they’re doing

Marisa Wojcik:

Sure.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

A lot, and improve the lives of that many more people.

Marisa Wojcik:

What are some other, kind of, components or criteria that when you’re reviewing proposals, set certain proposals aside more than others? What are some of the core ideals that you’re looking for in scoring?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

So, definitely tech innovation, and then we care a lot locally about reducing geographic and racial disparities. So, getting to what you had asked about earlier, how can we help advance our community as a whole, and, even better, if we could do it for those who need it the most. So that’s a big piece of the criteria that we have here locally. So, to advance to the top three, you’d need to be able to address that. And then the other big pieces are that it’s implementable, that it can sustain itself without constant influx of Schmidt Future’s money, so people have to be able to identify either a revenue stream or other interested parties to help continue to fund the program, and finally, just like I mentioned, that you can implement it and carry it out. The 10,000, 10%, 2022, are really big goals, and it just would be amazing if people could accomplish that, but I think that’s mostly like a big goal to bring people together, to get the teams together, and if we can get close to that, it would be considered a success.

Marisa Wojcik:

So it’s not necessarily like we are saying this is a failure if we don’t reach that, there’s a lot of, and even though your proposals are looking for really tangible things, if some of those tangible goals aren’t met, you’re still seeing the bigger benefits

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Absolutely.

Marisa Wojcik:

That are potentially less measurable as still success

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Absolutely.

Marisa Wojcik:

Like community partnerships.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Absolutely, I think the partnerships that this process has been able to initiate and build is one of the highlights of the program and the outcomes that have developed. And, it’s provided a lot of momentum. A lot of people talk about breaking out of their silos, but not everybody’s funded to do that, or there’s not an opportunity for that to be like, “Okay, we can all work on this together,” and so this effort really helps to provide that sort of platform.

Marisa Wojcik:

Because Dane County’s known for having a lot of resources and a lot of non-profits, but the ability to bring all of those together and like you said, break down those silos, can be complicated. Whose job is it?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yeah, and because of the scale, it almost necessitates that, right? One non-profit competing with another might never get to that scale. So you need both of them to come together to have that reach.

Marisa Wojcik:

So, can you kind of run us through just some of the semi-finalists? What are some of the things that are kind of being put forth?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Sure, so there is a program called Clocked, and that is a gig-economy based app, where a restaurant, for example, could say… you know, there is a lot of shortages right now in the restaurant industry for workers, so a restaurant can say, “Well, so and so’s out sick, “We don’t have anybody to cover it, “I can put a shift on this app, and somebody “who might be looking for a couple shifts, “can just pick one up.” Or pick two up, or you can pick up lots of shifts, or maybe it’s a segue into a permanent position at that restaurant, so that’s a way for people to either earn additional side income or get into that marketplace, that job market a little more easily.

Marisa Wojcik:

Kind of like an Uber for shifts.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yes. Potentially, right? Another idea is for the North Side Planning Council to expand their feed kitchens and their digital reach to help improve the businesses of those that participate in their programming. And if they were to do an app that promotes safe food carts or local food products, they could expand that to the larger region and not only focus on their own clients. So that’s two, another one is Mobilize Dane, and their goal is to help provide and fill transportation gaps that exist for getting people in Madison out to the job centers that developing on the periphery, like in DeForest or Sun Prairie. Perhaps Middleton. And so how can they work with employers to get people that don’t live there to those well-paying jobs? $15 or more an hour, which would be about a living wage for this area. Transportation has been identified as a barrier to getting enough employees out there. So that’s three. Another one is to help former students pay off their student loan debt more quickly through an advising service, through an AI sort of chat bot. A similar chat bot concept but applied to promoting and providing pathways to jobs in the medical sector, so that’s working with Sidekick Education, and they would work potentially with, say, for example, UW Health, to identify their employees that, with a training or two, could advance to a higher paying position within their existing network, and not have to be searching outside of UW Health to find employees to fill those jobs.

Marisa Wojcik:

So lots of ways in which you can see these local existing structures, physical structures, physical people, are using technology to broaden their reach.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Exactly.

Marisa Wojcik:

So do you see that as, like, expandable to other communities in Wisconsin or to the… like a state-wide effect? Is there talk about what might happen after Dane County?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Yeah, so ideally any project that comes through and gets far through the process can be replicable locally and ideally nationally, right?

Marisa Wojcik:

Okay.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

So, if Sidekick develops a chat bot to work with UW Health, they could work pretty much with anybody, and they would adjust the parameters for who or what they’re looking for, and what the jobs are, as long as they have those partnerships and agreements in place. Same thing for a food-related app, that could be… there could be like food cart app, Dane County food cart app, Green Bay food cart app, Milwaukee, you know, whatever. It’s like very transferrable technology, hopefully, whatever comes out of the process.

Marisa Wojcik:

So we have two rounds, second round is in the works, are there going to be more rounds after that?

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

We don’t know.

Marisa Wojcik:

Okay.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

We can hope. (laughs) But right now we’re focusing on getting the second round done and helping the teams be their best, because at the end of the day, we, as Wisconsin, are competing against these other institutions and their ideas, and we would love for Wisconsin to bring home money for two teams again. That would be quite another wonderful feat for this coming year.

Marisa Wojcik:

Well Bridgit, thank you so much for being here and telling us more about this.

Bridgit Van Belleghem:

Of course, thank you.

Marisa Wojcik:

For more from Here & Now and PBS Wisconsin you can go to PBSWisconsin.org, and thank you so much for joining us on Noon Wednesday.