STEM education is a cost-effective ways to invest in socioeconomic mobility. Education + social capital = upward mobility

2. Our mission:
United Way of Bucks County creates
opportunities for quality education,
financial stability, and good health to
ensure real, lasting change for individuals
and our communities.

3. Short-term: Basic Needs
• Shelter
• Transportation
• Child care
• Food
What we do.

4. Long-term: Lasting Change
• Financial self-sufficiency
• Family stability
• Quality education
• Better health
What we do.

5. COVID Recovery
Today: Relief and
recovery, responding
immediately.
Tomorrow: Reimagine
and rebuild, being
mindful of racial equity.
2%
8%
28%
33%
14%
11%
2% 2%
behavioral health supports education food
safety and PPE shelter technology
transportation utilities
Our COVID Recovery Fund
served over 56,000 people.
How we do it.

6. HELP Center
Today: Provide essential
items families can’t
afford.
Tomorrow: Ensure they
are connected to
services across Member
Agencies.
HELP Center provided over
$1.2m in goods in 9 months.
How we do it.

7. EMERGENCY HELP
Today: Help people
experiencing a one-
time financial crisis.
Tomorrow: People
remain in their homes,
families stay together.
77% of ALICE families have
less than 4 weeks in savings.
How we do it.

8. PRE-K
SCHOLARSHIPS
Today: Parents get to
work so they can
support their families.
Tomorrow: Kids do
better in school thanks
to quality early
education.
After a year, over 80% of our
kids are on target in reading
& math (a 60% increase).
How we do it.

9. FRESH CONNECT
Today: Provide hunger
relief for those in
need.
Tomorrow: Improve
the health of
thousands of people
through better
nutrition.
Fresh Connect site visits are
still up roughly 300%.
How we do it.

10. STEM Education
Today: Support and
promote STEM
education, PreK to
postsecondary.
Tomorrow: Improve
socioeconomic
mobility for low- and
moderate-income kids.
Students from high-income
schools are up to 2x as likely
to get STEM degrees.
How we do it.

11. How do we get from this:
United Way of Bucks County creates
opportunities for quality education,
financial stability, and good health to
ensure real, lasting change for individuals
and our communities...
to STEM education?

12. We see STEM education as one of
the most cost-effective ways to
invest in socioeconomic mobility.
Education + social capital =
upward mobility

13. STEM is where the JOBS are:
• “According to the Smithsonian
Science Education Center, 2.4
million STEM Jobs went unfilled
in the U.S in 2018.” (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-
releases/the-tech-dilemma-millions-of-unfilled-jobs-not-enough-workers-and-lack-of-confidence-in-stem-
education-301139514.html)
• “STEM jobs are growing twice as
fast as other jobs (10%+ year
over year).”(https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2188-building-
americas-future-stem-education)

14. STEM is where the MONEY is:
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: 93 of
the top 100 STEM occupations
pay above average wages.
(https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-
past-present-and-future/pdf/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-past-
present-and-future.pdf)
• Average STEM job salary is
$87,570, almost double the non-
STEM national average. (ibid)

15. STEM is where the MONEY is:
• In 2020, top tech companies
struggled to fill jobs.
• Facebook: 10k new positions,
majority highly-compensated
product and engineering roles.
• Amazon: 33k new corp, tech jobs
starting at $150k https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-tech-
dilemma-millions-of-unfilled-jobs-not-enough-workers-and-lack-of-confidence-in-stem-education-
301139514.html

16. Wharton Public Policy Initiative:
“Policymakers concerned about both
income inequality and a lack of
socioeconomic mobility should
understand the opportunities a STEM
education provide; stable, in-demand
work with high pay across a diverse set
of growing industries.”
(https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2188-building-americas-future-stem-education#_edn12)

17. Beware: Socioeconomic Mobility
• 99%+ of STEM employment is
occupations that typically require
some type of postsecondary
education for entry (compared with
36% of overall employment).
https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-past-present-
and-future/home.htm
• Affluent kids with low high-school
test scores are as likely to get a
college degree (30%) as high-scoring
kids from poor families (29%).
(Our Kids by Robert Putnam)

18. Beware: Social Capital
• “[M]iddle-class and affluent young people
often enjoy a network of family and friends
serving as informal mentors...pushing them to
success. About two-thirds of teens in the
highest economic quartile receive some
mentoring beyond their extended family,
while, in contrast, only about a third of youth
from the bottom economic quarter do." (Harvard social
scientist Robert D. Putnam and the National Mentoring Partnership (NMP) support these findings. A 2013 study from NMP,
later augmented with qualitative research
• Unequal access to networks of professionals
contributes to the opportunity gap.

19. We watch for:
• Pay gaps, even in STEM professions
• Class ceiling: Salary correlates to
social class
• How we characterize the impact of
STEM professions to
underrepresented populations