For Philadelphia's upper middle class, the COVID-19 economic crisis barely hurt and has, the experts contend, essentially ended.

Middle class and working class workers have born the brunt of the pandemic — the illness, the economic disruption, the layoffs and the job closings.

CEO Voffee Jabateh says the $1 million grant from Poverty Action Fund is a good start, but the city needs to take small nonprofits more seriously.

"There seem to be a growing consensus that cash is the best tool in the fight against poverty. But is it?" asks guest columnist Heath Henderson.

The organizations hope to create “a place-based, collective service delivery model” to create the ultimate in coordination — one-stop shopping to tackle poverty.

Through the Family Stability Community Challenge, UWGPSNJ identified four high-performing nonprofit organizations — the Poverty Action Fund's first grantees — whose proposals connect individuals and families to important economic security programs.

Chicago is a well-off town with a poverty problem. Philadelphia is poor. But The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, Pew's Fund for Health and Human Services and GreenLight Fund Philadelphia are already employing parallel strategies.

While no official announcements regarding plans to conduct a longitudinal study of poverty in Philadelphia have been made yet, beginning to hypothesize or imagine how such a study would work in the city may be a worthwhile exercise.

These organizations with ties to the neighborhoods are putting the city to work, one person at a time.

When people who receive benefits increase earned income as well, they often face a "benefits cliff," where the benefits taper off before sustainable economic self-sufficiency and growth can occur.