Our focus is to assure access to opportunity for every young person in the United States. Our demonstration sites will likely preference investment in the youth and families who have least access to opportunity (e.g. where we can most impact community outcomes, while saving taxpayer dollars from avoided downstream spending.) It is vital for everyone in our nation that the kids who experience the least access to opportunity, get a fair shot; starting by investing in the critical period from preconception to 5 years old.
IIF strives to significantly and sustainably increase investment in coordinated local actions that maximize thriving of youth and their families. This will improve lives and create substantial public and private return on investment downstream. The focus is on increasing the flow of capital to enhance youth development, thereby creating financial incentives that reward successful investment in upstream flourishing, rather than overspending in response to illness and social failure.
Increasing “upstream” investment in youth and families, while investing in the Vital Conditions of Health and Well-Being,* (e.g. food and housing, primary care, behavioral health, and access to opportunity), is a precursor to improving outcomes. Investment is less expensive than the current reactive spending paradigm, which funds amelioration of illness and social failure. Ensuring that all youth can flourish reflects our nation’s values and is essential to a healthy economy and national security.
* See https://rippel.org/vital-conditions/
IIF and local partners are building on strong cross-sector community collaboratives to deliver comprehensive, coordinated wraparound support to identified youth and their families alongside investments in their neighborhoods. Ultimately, the goal is not to privatize or to provide more downstream health and social services funding, but to redirect investment upstream, to transform youth and family outcomes.
IIF is building out the backbone support infrastructure (e.g., data, methodology, financing mechanisms, etc.) to support future expansion. IIF is engaging with philanthropic partners, conducting tests of change that operationalize outcomes-based financing, so that the pilots can generate the data and learning required to unlock future commercial capital in service of flourishing.
IIF intends to transform how health and social services are funded—to increase youth flourishing, and in turn, the long-term well-being and wealth of the American people. This will shrink the need for downstream and rehabilitative services (avoided costs), while developing more comprehensive service delivery systems that generate positive change in individuals' lives and the neighborhoods in which they live.