Created in 1990, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) was designed “to generate, gather and disseminate research on the relationship between race and poverty.” They have done so with great determination and vigor with significant financial support from a wide range of donors, including the Rockefeller Foundation and Fannie Mae. First-time visitors will get a good sense of their...

Many laboratories focus their attention on topics like Alzheimer's research, but this laboratory at MIT focuses on poverty. The objective of their work at the Poverty Action Lab is "to improve the effectiveness of poverty programs by providing policy makers with clear scientific results that help shape successful polices to combat poverty." The Lab was started in June 2003 by a group of...

Last Tuesday, the US Census Bureau released their annual report on poverty. The report gives data on poverty rates by selected characteristics -- age, race, nativity, family composition, work experience, and geography. Findings reveal that the nation's poverty rate dropped from 12.7 percent in 1998 to 11.8 percent in 1999, the lowest rate since 1979. In addition, "real median household income...

Since John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson declared war on rural poverty during their time in the White House, there has been an overriding concern with alleviating the persistently high levels of poverty in the American South. A number of organizations have developed to provide assistance to the region, and the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), located at Mississippi State University is one...

The issue of concentrated poverty is one that continues to engage the attention of social workers, politicians, and scholars alike. In this intriguing 24-page report from the Brooking Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, Paul A. Jargowsky presents findings that suggest that concentrated poverty declined significantly during the 1990s. Some of his findings include statistics...

The Economic Research Service division of the United States Department of Agriculture has published a number of insightful and thoughtful studies in its long history, and this study by Dean Jolliffe lives up to those exacting standards. Released in September 2006, the paper takes a critical look at the location of poverty across urban and rural areas in the United States. Drawing on a variety of...

Prepared by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), "The Role of Community Development Corporations in Promoting the Well-Being of Young Children" is an extremely well designed and documented record of the impact of poverty on the lives of young Americans. With more than 12 million children living below the poverty line, many young Americans are in need of all the help they can get,...

In the mid-1960s, President Johnson saw the need for independent nonpartisan analysis of the problems facing America's cities and their residents. The President created a blue-ribbon commission of civic leaders who recommended chartering a center to do that work and in 1968, the Urban Institute became that center. Today the Urban Institute analyzes policies, evaluates programs, and informs...