<
https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/october-2023/what-500-means-to-zinida-moore/>
"Zinida Moore sits on her plush brown couch on a Tuesday afternoon in November.
The sounds of the busy Englewood thoroughfare outside seep into her two-bedroom
apartment. She keeps her phone next to her, and it dings regularly. Most people
in her life know that these early-afternoon hours are the best time to reach
her. It’s the only time of the day when she is both awake and not working.
Moore, 41 at the time, leans back into the couch. She’s exhausted, but that’s
nothing new. For much of the past two decades, she has held more than one job
at a time. Lately she’s been working at both the Walmart in Chatham and a
nearby Dollar Tree. At Walmart, Moore stocks shelves and checks inventory from
10 p.m. to 7 a.m. From there, she takes an $8 Uber to the Dollar Tree, where
she opens the store at 7:30 a.m. and works until 1:30 p.m. “I get tired, but
then I think about my kids,” says Moore, who has three children at home.
“They’re my motivation.”
A flat-screen television is encircled by family photographs. In one, Moore lies
on a bed surrounded by her kids, their heads forming a triangle around her. A
dual frame features a photo of the high school graduation of her oldest child,
Reggie, 23, and a school picture of her 16-year-old daughter, Ziniya. The
windowsill is covered with trophies that celebrate Ziniya’s cheerleading,
Reggie’s football days, and the creative writing of her youngest, Ryan, who is
11.
Working multiple jobs is how Moore has long managed to cobble together enough
income to supply her kids with basic necessities at home and for school. And
then there’s the not-strictly-necessary stuff — trendy clothes, trips to the
movies, money for the mall — that she wants them to have. It all adds up. Her
financial stability has always been precarious, and she worries that one
emergency could quickly spiral her into even deeper debt.
Moore’s phone dings. It’s Ziniya. She needs a new uniform for her cheer squad.
Her text breaks down the cost of each piece: $45 for an oversize hair bow, $25
for a collar, $110 for shoes, $125 for the backpack. Then there’s the rest of
the uniform. All told, it will run $630.
In previous years, Moore might have sent out a text to family and friends
seeking donations for the uniform. She might have asked the school if she could
pay in installments. But this year, for the first time, she can cover it all
herself. That’s because she has an extra $500 a month coming in — not from a
third job or a side hustle but from the City of Chicago, which gives her the
money to spend or save as she chooses.
It’s part of an audacious new philosophy of government aid, an experiment of
sorts that seeks to find out whether infusions of no-strings-attached cash can
begin to break the cycle of poverty. “I was a kid who couldn’t get the stuff I
wanted right away,” Moore says. “It makes me feel some type of way to be able
to do that for my kids.” She tells Ziniya to order the uniform."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-education-girls-crime-uk-ocean-conservation-new-zealand/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
