Growing Resilience (GRIT) Cash Assistance Project
In a time marked by economic uncertainty and shifting labor markets, the need for innovative solutions to ensure household stability has never been more necessary. Direct cash assistance has emerged as a compelling strategy to address income volatility and household instability.
Many Puget Sound area residents spend more than half of their income to keep a roof over their heads. Being housing cost-burdened significantly increases the risk of homelessness for families. When unexpected expenses arise, such as a medical emergency or job loss, households are at risk of eviction or displacement.
Direct cash transfer programs, like GRIT, are designed to help struggling families meet their basic needs. GRIT offers direct cash payments to eligible households, ensuring that parents can focus on what truly matters: raising their children and building a brighter future for their family. Unrestricted cash assistance is an effective strategy to promote economic resilience, reduce poverty, and foster greater security for families and vulnerable individuals.
How Does It Work
Once enrolled in GRIT, participants receive:
- Monthly Cash Payments: 12 monthly payments designed to provide stability and relieve some financial stress, providing an opportunity to focus on long-term goals like career advancement, educational opportunities, and creating a better future for your children
- Benefits Counseling:
- Supports and Resources:
- Opportunities to Earn Stipends for Participating in Evaluation/Learning Activities:
Why It Matters
As a single parent, juggling the responsibilities of work, childcare, and running a household can feel overwhelming. Many ALICE households have a parent working two or even three jobs just to make ends meet. The financial strain is real. Despite being employed, many of these families cannot afford basic necessities, let alone plan for the future. GRIT is here to p/grit-registrationrovide immediate relief along with supports and resources, ensuring families can thrive.
Why It Matters
As a single parent, juggling the responsibilities of work, childcare, and running a household can feel overwhelming. Many ALICE households have a parent working two or even three jobs just to make ends meet. The financial strain is real. Despite being employed, many of these families cannot afford basic necessities, let alone plan for the future. GRIT is here to provide immediate relief along with support and resources, ensuring families can thrive.
How to Apply
Currently, the Growing Resilience program is not accepting applications, as GRIT 2.0 closed out in March 2025. If you would like to be notified if additional funding becomes available for GRIT 3.0, CLICK HERE.
Quick Links:
GRIT Videos and Recipient Stories
Impact and Data
FAQs
Demographics
Race (in %)
Native American/
Pacific Islander - 4%
Black African American - 26%
American Indian/
Alaska Native - 2%
Asian - 4%
White - 23%
Hispanic/Latino - 4%
Two or more races - 37%
Gender (in%)
Female - 82%
Male - 16%
Non-binary/
Non-conforming - 1%
The 110 families that received the guaranteed income were randomly selected from a pool of qualified applicants.
Qualified individuals were:
·City of Tacoma Residents currently residing in Eastside (98404), Hilltop (98405), South Tacoma (98409) or the South End (98408)
·Single income households with children living in the home up to age 17, children with disabilities up to age 21.
·Meet the ALICE definition: Asset Limited, Income Constrained while Employed. ALICE households income is between 100% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.
Initial Findings
GRIT is a randomized control trial (RCT) being run by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research. In the RCT there are 110 Tacoma families that receive $500 each month and participate in optional, compensated surveys and qualitative interviews every 6 months. As a comparison group to the 110, there are 132 Tacoma families who are demographically similar to the 110, however, do not receive the $500 each month but are invited to participate in the surveys and interviews. We expect to have survey data in July 2024.
To review GRIT data and data from our partner cities please explore https://guaranteedincome.us/tacoma
Spending Behavior
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GRIT believes there is an opportunity to not only provide cash as a tool of poverty alleviation, but also to learn through pilots and demonstrations how to administer support programs in a way that empowers the individual, affirms trust and respect, and honors the value of people's time and dignity. Some of our administrative lessons learned include:
Benefits protection - Ensuring that additional income does not harm families. Guaranteed income is best positioned in addition to current benefits systems
Self-attestation - Allowing families the ability to self-attest to their relationship to eligibility criteria lightened administrative burden, saved time for busy recipients, and created a foundation of trust
Providing disbursement options for banked, unbanked, and underbanked participants
Working with the impacted community to ensure awareness and supportive programming
Kind and thoughtful communication with participants goes a long way
Supporting low-income, single-head-of-household families with no-strings-attached cash gifts.
Growing Resilience in Tacoma (GRIT) 2.0, a partnership with WA State Economic Services Administration, the City of Tacoma, Pierce County, and UWPC, ran from April 2024 through March 2025. GRIT was a 12-month cash transfer project designed to boost the financial security of low-income, single heads of households with children. GRIT provided 175 ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) families $500 a month for 12 months. These dollars are unconditional and unrestricted. This project is designed to demonstrate that this type of cash investment can reduce feelings of overwhelm and toxic stress, improve economic stability, increase housing security, and improve health and well-being while reducing poverty in our community. This project served residents living within zip codes with the highest numbers of ALICE households. Project participants were chosen through a randomized selection process.
Why Cash as a Strategy?
Unconditional cash gift programs are an effective tool that empowers families by providing them with the resources they need to support their families.
For many households, a small monthly infusion of financial support can make the difference between stability and vulnerability.
Despite the overall prosperity of the Puget Sound area, in Pierce County more than one in four households struggles to meet their basic needs.
Economic inequity negatively impacts families and undermines our County’s overall well-being and economic health.
The COVID pandemic and economic inflation have magnified these inequities.
The goal of programs like GRIT is to alleviate poverty by improving economic stability, housing security, and mental health. The goals for GRIT were:
Investing in ALICE: Supporting a population already identified as struggling - Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed - which represents the financial disparities of BIPOC families and has been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cultivating Resilience: Empower families to make financial decisions and address crises on their own terms.
Inform Policies: Additionally, the demonstration aims to inform State and Federal policies that promote economic opportunity and enhance, improve and increase equity in the social safety net by:
Changing the Narrative: Through storytelling and data, build a case for supporting more equity in housing, childcare, physical wellbeing, and financial wellness and uplift the truth that poverty is a systems failure - not a personal failure.
Building Support: Leverage learnings and experiences to impact systems changes that support unconditional cash programs and other strength-based policies that enhance, improve and increase equity in the social safety net.
Preliminary Results
The GRIT 2.0 final report will be released Summer 2025, but we would like to share some preliminary results from halfway through the project:
Preliminary Results
The GRIT 2.0 final report will be released Summer 2025, but we would like to share some preliminary results from halfway through the project:
Growing Resilience In Tacoma 2.5
In mid-2024 The United Way Pierce County was given a gracious donation that is helping to change 15 of our communities ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed) family’s lives for the better.
Growing Resilience in Tacoma (GRIT) 2.5 is a 12-month guaranteed cash gift project. GRIT 2.5 is an amazing gift from The Martin-Fabert Foundation that began October 15, 2024, and will conclude September 15, 2025. These participants will be receiving a $500.00 gift each month from The Martin-Fabert Foundation for a full year. Along with the monthly gift, these families will be offered financial coaching, employment coaching as well as access to community resources here in Pierce County.
We look forward to working with our 2.5 participants and reporting back on strides that are made in the coming months. Once again, we (United Way, The GRIT Program and the City of Tacoma) thank you Martin-Fabert Foundation, for this life changing gift.