Executive Summary

In 2019, Catalyst Miami (CM) co-authored the Color of Wealth in Miami study, which found Miami’s white household median asset value at $113,500, Hispanic/Latinx households at 9-23% of that, Caribbean Black households at 12%, and US Black households at <6%. 54% of Miami-Dade’s population is in poverty or the working poor (United Way, 2020). This is the context where Miami-Dade’s families are facing the climate crisis, navigating our nation’s most unaffordable housing market, and struggling to meet healthcare costs.

The CM team experiences these inequities in their own lives. They work, not for, but with and alongside our community. CM’s vision, co-created with dozens of frontline community members, is a just society where everyone can lead healthy, prosperous, self-determined lives.

CM supports household stability through free social and financial services, resulting in >$1M in savings for >1,000 clients annually. Meaningful change happens when impacted communities transform the systems that shape their daily lives. To this end, CM graduates >100 persons annually through our leadership trainings, honing their advocacy skills and issue-specific expertise. CM hosts several multi-sector coalitions where graduates apply these skills- helping to pass a tenant’s bill of rights, achieving a gubernatorial veto of a bill intended to decimate solar affordability, and winning >$40M in investments through the County’s budget process. CM implements innovative wealth-building strategies; including children’s savings accounts, worker cooperatives, and community investment cooperatives. As a whole, CM takes a ‘both-and’ approach: reforming current systems and ushering in new people-powered systems.

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