Students as young as elementary age took the stage at Taipei’s Forum Music Auditorium on Friday, June 5, showcasing their talents to raise money for basic income in Taiwan. By the end of the night, the roughly 10 performers and an audience of about 30 had brought in thousands of US dollars toward a US$20,000 goal.
Hosted by UBI Taiwan and sponsored by Ascent Academy, the event paired the musical performances with social impact projects designed by the academy’s middle and high school students. The proposals ranged from free public speaking classes for underprivileged communities to a basic income plan for homeless people around Taipei Main Station. One student, Tony Wang, has been studying homelessness pilots abroad to adapt a version suited to Taiwan. Another, Wenxuan, is conducting public polling on basic income designs in Taiwan to inform policy discussions.
Students chose their own projects, and the night was theirs to run. “That was up to them. We gave them the stage, and they chose all that,” said Tyler Prochazka, co-founder of UBI Taiwan and Ascent Academy. “We have our creative side, and we have our hard logic, rational side, and that they’re using both of those to try to help other people, I think is a really beautiful message.”
For Prochazka, the value of the exercise was as much educational as it was charitable. Students arrive with plenty of ideas, he said, then discover how much harder those ideas are to carry out in the real world. “Inputs don’t necessarily lead to outputs,” he said. “To be impactful, you have to learn to be adaptive. You have to learn how to overcome challenges, and you have to work with other real people.”
The room was filled with parents and students there to back the idea of giving young people a platform to widen opportunity for everyone, regardless of background.
The defining moment, for Prochazka, came when long-time student Wesley Low held the stage after the projector failed. Low had started in the program years earlier as a nervous public speaker, and had since represented his work at the United Nations and at Harvard. “There was a problem with the projector, and he was riffing and working the crowd very comfortably and very effectively,” Prochazka said. Improvising, Low spoke about how the projects had changed the way he thinks about his impact on others, and how serving as a role model can inspire that same shift in the people around him.
“He could command the stage and present his project and make people care about it,” Prochazka said. “That’s maybe the most valuable skill you can have to make a difference. You have to convince the stakeholders to care.”
The night’s total surpassed what organizers had projected. “I thought NT$40,000 would be very good. But it ended up being a lot more,” said UBI Taiwan Operations Manager Steve Wei. “We need to send thanks to Eric and Tyler. They tried very hard to promote this fundraising event.” Eric Tseng, administrative director of Ascent Academy’s Elite Program, helped drive the event’s promotion alongside Prochazka.
The money will go toward reviving UBI Taiwan’s single-parent basic income program next year. The organization aims to support at least three recipients and to assign a media team to document their progress, building on the documentary it produced about its first recipient.
UBI Taiwan sees single parents as among the most important recipients of unconditional cash. Raising children on a single income leaves little room to absorb a setback, and the organization argues that supporting these households shows in concrete terms how Taiwanese society would benefit from expanding unconditional cash programs.
The approach follows the organization’s 2023 pilot, which gave Ms Yu, a single mother who had been diagnosed with cancer, NT$10,000 a month for a year. UBI Taiwan produced a documentary tracing her experience on the program. Prochazka said the organization remains in contact with her, and that she is doing well and holds a stable job. Read about the pilot program.
Before recruiting new candidates, UBI Taiwan needs to secure funding. “We have to make sure that the organization is administratively ready, and we have all those funds secured before we start,” Prochazka said. The next round will likely involve a partner organization in selecting recipients. Working through a partner gives “added protection for the candidate,” Prochazka said, since choosing from a vulnerable group calls for a sensitivity an outside organization is better positioned to provide. The details remain tentative until funding and partners are confirmed.
The program’s revival comes as Taiwan moves toward a possible universal child basic income. UBI Taiwan argues that parents themselves need support to give their children the strongest start, and that the single-parent program makes that case directly.
“We really need to rethink our roles in society for everybody. And that starts with young people, because that change almost always comes from the next generation,” Prochazka said.
To support UBI Taiwan’s work toward economic security for all, you can donate here.
By Rain Wang
