Toward reduced poverty across generations

In 2007, New York City's Center for Economic Opportunity launched Opportunity NYC Family Rewards, an experimental, privately funded, conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to help families break the cycle of poverty. CCT programs offer cash assistance to reduce immediate hardship, but condition these transfers on families' efforts to build up their human capital, often by developing the education and skills that may reduce their poverty over the longer term. Family Rewards is the first comprehensive CCT program in a developed country. Aimed at low-income families in six of New York City's highest-poverty communities, Family Rewards ties cash rewards to pre-specified activities and outcomes in children's education, families' preventive health care, and parents' employment.