Launched December 2020.

The Columbia Life Improvement Monetary Boost (CLIMB) program was South Carolina’s first guaranteed income demonstration. The program aimed to address poverty, inequity, and family instability by investing directly in fathers. CGIR employed a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) and aimed to understand how participants spent the money, to measure outcomes around financial security, health, and wellness, and to discover the effectiveness and practicality of guaranteed income in tackling the fracturing of families. The treatment group consisted of 100 randomly-selected fathers who resided in Columbia, SC, were at least 18 years old, and had some prior or current involvement with the Midlands Fatherhood Coalition. The control group consisted of 100 randomly-selected fathers who met the same requirements as the treatment group. The treatment group participants received $500 monthly cash-transfers for one year. CLIMB partnered with the Central Carolina Community Foundation and MoCaFi to provide prepaid debit cards to the guaranteed income recipients.