Imagine being one of 3,200 of the poorest residents of Los Angeles, receiving $1,000 a month, no strings attached.

Would it change your life? For many, the answer is a resounding yes.

The premise of the Big Leap program was to explore the effects of guaranteed income on some of the city’s most vulnerable families.

Launched in 2022, the Big Leap—short for Basic Income Guaranteed: Los Angeles Economic Assistance Pilot — provided 3,200 families with $1,000 a month for an entire year.

Unlike other guaranteed income experiments funded by private donors, this initiative was unique because it was financed entirely with public funds. The City of Los Angeles allocated $38.4 million to the program, making it the largest publicly funded guaranteed income research project in the United States.

Participants were carefully selected from a pool of 50,000 applicants.

To qualify, families needed to meet specific criteria: they had to live at or below the federal poverty level, have experienced hardships because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and either be pregnant or have at least one child.

For Ashley Davis, one of the recipients of the Big Leap, the program was nothing short of life-changing.

She shared her transformative experience with fellow LA Times reporter Rebecca Plevin on “LA Times Today.”

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