Brooklyn, NY - Beam – the end-to-end platform that streamlines equitable public benefit administration, formerly known as Edquity – today announced its partnership with the Michigan Education Corps (MEC), a local AmeriCorps program serving students age three through grade eight, to provide emergency financial aid to active members in the state of Michigan. With Beam’s cloud-based platform, the MEC has awarded $11,750 to 36 members since December 2022 to provide one-time cash assistance for food, medical visits, transportation, and other basic needs.
“As a result of the pandemic, our educators are not only forced to take on more responsibility as a result of staffing shortages, but are also contending with unprecedented challenges like overcoming learning loss and supporting our students through unprecedented socioemotional difficulties. We urgently need more educators in our classrooms and we need to to support them in continuing this important work,” said David Helene, CEO and founder of Beam. “We’re proud to partner with the Michigan Education Corps to provide financial support to their members, who play an essential role in restoring our communities. We believe technology partnerships such as these will help create lasting impact that will continue to pay itself forward by educating the next generation.”
Every year, AmeriCorps places more than 200,000 active members serving more than one million students, strengthening communities across the country. While these members are on the front lines educating students, they often face financial burdens, including the rising cost of food, housing insecurity, boundaries to proper healthcare, and transportation complications.
With Beam’s flexible cloud-based platform, MEC helped its members find and directly apply to available financial resources in their area. Through its app and desktop platform, Beam provided an accessible and streamlined application process for MEC members to locate programs needed to cover basic needs. Beam was also able to source MEC critical applicant data, finding 81% of applicants needed transportation assistance, and about half of applicants needed food, housing, or health assistance.
“Our MEC AmeriCorps members are transforming the lives and futures of students across Michigan,” said Thomas Bobo, Senior AmeriCorps Program Director with Hope Network’s Michigan Education Corps. “Beam has helped us efficiently connect our members with the assistance they need to continue their generous and life-changing service in their community.”
MEC places its members in pre-, elementary and middle schools to provide reading, math, and early learning support. The organization provides data-driven, evidence-based instruction to ensure Michigan children can be successful in school and beyond.
Today’s news comes on the heels of Beam’s recent report in collaboration with United Way and Believe in Students documenting the impact of an emergency financial grant pilot program in King County, Washington, which distributed $150,000 in emergency funding to over 250 students in five months across three local colleges.
Since 2020, Beam has administered over $200M to 300,000 households, including rental assistance, utility subsidy for low-income households and direct cash assistance for childcare workers. Beam now provides digital infrastructure for 53 government, institution, and nonprofit partners across 16 states and the District of Columbia.
To learn more, please visit https://www.bybeam.co/. To access Beam’s media kit, please visit https://www.bybeam.co/media-kit.
