Trust Survivors: Building an Effective and Inclusive Cash Assistance Program

In 2020, as a rapid response to COVID-19, FreeFrom launched their Safety Fund. Survivors identify cash as their #1 most urgent need to get and stay safe during the pandemic. Yet, FreeFrom learned from running the Safety Fund that a survivor-centered approach to disbursing money—one that recognizes that every survivor knows their circumstances best—is as important as the cash itself.

In this report, FreeFrom shares lessons learned from 1,000 survivors who received a Safety Fund grant in 2020 about how to build an effective and inclusive cash assistance program that will work for them. Overwhelmingly, survivors expressed that they need a program steeped in flexibility and trust.