September 30, 2025

Natalie Shaak, Associate Director of Communication and Administration, recently joined a panel at Women's Ways's Gender Wealth Summit to discuss the challenges and future of the social safety net.

Shaak opened with a powerful critique of the term itself, noting that the “safety net” is a misnomer. Rather than providing true safety, it functions as a fragmented patchwork that often retraumatizes the very people it is meant to support. She and her fellow panelists offered a vision for what the system could become—one that provides dignity, empowerment, and holistic care. She shared her vision of public assistance as a pathway to self-sufficiency that integrates supports, rewards growth, and allows families to build assets like savings and retirement investments. Shaak emphasized the importance of dignity and personal choice, reminding the audience that families know best what they need.

She also highlighted examples of programs that embody this vision, including COVID-19 relief programs that prioritized collective well-being, Rx Kids in Michigan, which provides unrestricted cash payments to expecting mothers and infants, and Triple Bottom Brewery’s Future of Service Apprenticeship program in Philadelphia, which demonstrates how for-profit industries can create trauma-informed, holistic pathways to long-term career success. Other panelists shared about additional guaranteed income programs and the impact of tax policy on communities.

Members of the Center’s Building Wealth and Health Network, Leona Brown and Alisha Gillespie, also attended the summit, bringing their lived expertise into the conversation. They underscored the need to center community voices in reimagining solutions and to use accessible, inclusive language in shaping narratives around public assistance. This focus on changing the narrative—shifting core beliefs about who receives public assistance and why—emerged as a central theme of the summit. Shaak’s contributions added to a collective call to not only repair a broken system but also to envision a future where families can thrive without needing it in the first place.