The Connecticut Council for Philanthropy and the Melville Charitable Trust invite you to join CCP's Policy Spotlight for a conversation about guaranteed basic income (GBI). with Madeline Neighly, the Director of Guaranteed Income at the Economic Security Project and Co-Chair of the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice, and Mayor Ben Florsheim of Middletown, a member of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
We will discuss what GBI is, the potential for how it can work, and what some parts of the state are doing to make it a reality. There will be a particular focus on GBI with respect to both the philanthropic sector in CT as well as the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funding and how municipalities may have an opportunity to tie GBI into their recovery plans.
Speakers
Madeline Neighly – Director of Guaranteed Income at the Economic Security Project and Co-Chair of the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice
Madeline Neighly is the Director of Guaranteed Income at the Economic Security Project and Co-Chair of the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice. Prior to joining ESP, she was a Director of Advocacy and Policy at the Roosevelt Institute where she focused on corporate power issues. Madeline previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor on criminal records at the Council of State Governments Justice Center, where she developed the Clean Slate Clearinghouse, as an attorney at Columbia Legal Services representing prisoners, and as a staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project working to expand fair employment opportunities for people with criminal records. Madeline has a JD from the University of California, Berkeley Law.
Mayor Ben Florsheim of Middletown – a member of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income
Ben Florsheim is the 62nd mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, having been elected in November 2019 as the youngest mayor in city history. Since taking office, Ben has been focused on investing in our local economy, working to make Middletown a more sustainable city, keeping cost of living in check, and ensuring a robust and equitable community-wide response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The son of educators, Ben was born in Chicago and grew up around the U.S. before arriving in Middletown as a student at Wesleyan University and deciding to settle permanently in the community he had come to love. Before running for mayor, Ben worked at the nexus of local, state, and federal government as an aide to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy.
Ben lives in the Maromas section of Middletown with his fiancée and their rescue cat.