Who We Are
Our Story
Just Income is a program by Community Spring, a grassroots nonprofit focused on dismantling structural poverty and spurring economic mobility. The twin pillars of our work are providing income and building power. We do this by hiring fellows who have been impacted by poverty to help solve the systemic problems they identify as driving poverty in their communities.
Just Income was born out of the work of our 2020-2021 fellowship class, all of whom had been impacted by the justice system. They created Torchlighters Reentry Support, a support network and advocacy group for formerly incarcerated people. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, this group also developed a direct cash assistance program, CS Direct. Not only did we provide 128 low-income households with $300 payments, but we also used this program as a platform to discuss the importance of cash as a tool for poverty alleviation. Around the same time, Gainesville, Florida Mayor Lauren Poe joined Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a national network of mayors advocating for a guaranteed income to ensure that all Americans have an income floor. Our advocacy work got Mayor Poe’s attention and a partnership was developed to bring a guaranteed income pilot to Gainesville. On February 18, 2021, The City of Gainesville adopted a resolution to support a guaranteed income.
Just Income was developed and is implemented by Community Spring. We are not a project of the City of Gainesville and are 100% privately funded. This program is designed and administered by formerly incarcerated people.
Our Team
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Kevin Scott
Just Income Director
kscott@csgnv.orgBorn in Washington, D.C., and raised in Florida, Kevin is a longtime Gainesville resident with a passion for social justice and community organizing. As a 2020-2021 Community Spring Fellow, Kevin helped found Torchlighters Reentry Support and CS Direct.
Formerly a fellow, and now Staff at Community Spring, he serves as the Project Director of Just Income, the largest guaranteed income project in the country by and for formerly incarcerated people. An outspoken advocate for criminal justice issues and prisoner rights, he has been involved with Florida Prisoner Solidarity since 2016. Kevin has been a pivotal voice in several grassroots campaigns leading to policy changes around the use of prison labor. Kevin also gratefully served as a Guest Ambassador at GRACE Marketplace, a homeless services shelter.
Kevin has been to every state but Hawaii, practices Zen meditation, and is the proud father of one genius daughter and two dumb cats.
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Tequila McKnight
Just Income Participant Coordinator
tmcknight@csgnv.orgTequila McKnight was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida. A proud graduate of Gainesville High School, she is the founder of a local business called TNT Dynamite Cleaning Service. Tequila is passionate about ending mass incarceration in Florida. As a 2020-2021 Community Spring Fellow, Tequila co-founded Torchlighters Reentry Support and a Grassroots COVID Recovery Campaign.
Prior to Community Spring, she worked on the campaign for Amendment 4, which restored the voting rights for nearly 1.5 million formerly incarcerated Florida residents.
As a proud mother of five children and five grandchildren, she is driven to build a stronger, more prosperous community for future generations.
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Mayor Harvey Ward
Mayor of Gainesville, FL
Harvey Ward Jr. was first elected as Mayor of the City of Gainesville in November 2022. He was first elected as a district commissioner in March 2017 and then re-elected in 2020.
“I’m proud to continue the tradition of Gainesville mayors who have joined MGI. Our community values fair shots and second chances, and we believe in practical, data-driven solutions. MGI is helping our neighbors who need it most and sharing the kind of proven, reliable programs that make our city and nation stronger.”
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Lauren Poe
Former Mayor of Gainesville, FL
Lauren Poe has lived in Gainesville since first moving here in 1982. His father was the Director of Bands at the University of Florida, bringing Lauren into the Gator Nation at an early age. Mayor Poe is a graduate of Gainesville High School, earning his BA in History and M.Ed. in Secondary Social Sciences from the University of Florida.
Lauren has been a teacher in Alachua County since 1998, teaching American History at Ft. Clarke Middle School for four years before accepting a job as a Professor at Santa Fe College, recognized as the #1 college in the nation by the Aspen Institute. Professor Poe teaches Economics and Government in the High School Dual Enrollment Program.
Lauren was first elected to two terms for a total of six years on the Gainesville City Commission. His service on the commission included a year as mayor-commissioner pro tem, chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency, chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization, chair of the Regional Utilities Committee, and chair of the Recreation, Cultural Affairs & Public Works Committee.
Our Partners
Just Income is being independently evaluated by the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Lucius Couloute, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Suffolk University. Their research aim is to determine if receipt of a guaranteed income can mitigate known barriers to successful reentry, as well as unlock the inherent potential of returning citizens. This team is responsible for research design, implementing surveys, and conducting in-depth interviews with our participants, but will otherwise operate entirely independent of Community Spring activities.
Just Income is 100% privately funded, namely by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) and Spring Point Partners. We are proud to be supported by funders who provide financial and technical support for innovative projects that are paving the way in economic justice policy.
We are also partnered with Steady, a technology firm and app, to facilitate seamless cash transfers directly to recipients and collect data on spending. Southern Legal Counsel is providing counseling for recipients with preexisting public benefits which allows them to make informed decisions about how our guaranteed income could impact their benefits.
Independent Research Team
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Dr. Amy Castro
Assistant Professor of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania
Amy Castro is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and the co-Founder and Director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as the co-PI of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) under Mayor Michael Tubbs. She was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Penn’s School of Nursing (AY 19-20), an affiliated faculty member of the Alice Paul Center, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. She was the 2017 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award at the School of Social Policy and Practice where she teaches courses on policy analysis, gender, and impacting government.
Dr. Castro’s research explores economic mobility, guaranteed income, and innovation. She was awarded the GADE Research Award, the Society for Social Work and Research Outstanding Dissertation Award, and the Nina Fortin Award for her work on women and risky lending during the foreclosure crisis.
Prior to her time at Penn, she spent more than a decade working with non-profits and community-based agencies in Philadelphia and New York City. She has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Economic Security Project, and the Asset Funders Network. Her research has been published by Social Service Review, the Gerontologist, Social Science & Medicine, Social Work, The American Journal of Public Health, and featured throughout the popular press. She earned a PhD in Social Welfare and a Master of Philosophy from the City University of New York, a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Social Work from Cairn University.
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Dr. Lucius Couloute
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice, Suffolk University
Dr. Lucius Couloute came to Suffolk University in the summer of 2019. Previously, he worked as a policy analyst with the Prison Policy Initiative where he produced policy reports using Bureau of Justice Statistics data and advocated for criminal justice reform.
Dr. Couloute’s primary research interests involve the practices, processes, and impacts of criminalization. His current research investigates the structural barriers and cultural ideas that permeate a northeastern prisoner reentry system. Dr. Couloute’s work also examines how organizations produce, mediate, or experience systems of inequality.
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Dr. Stacia West
Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Tennessee
Stacia West is an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee’s College of Social Work and the co-Founder and Director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. West holds a BA in Women's Studies and Philosophy and a Masters of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. She holds a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Kansas. She is the co-PI of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), the first modern city-led guaranteed income experiment in the US. Her research focuses on universal basic income, unconditional cash-transfers, women’s poverty and wealth inequality, and the affordable housing crisis. Her research portfolio includes numerous grants, state and non-profit evaluation contracts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Asset Funders Network. Her work has been published in leading social science journals including the Journal of Society for Social Work and Research, Social Science and Medicine, The Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and The Gerontologist, and is regularly featured in major national media outlets.