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"Opportunities for Change" Summit Tackles Extreme Poverty in Illinois

Heartland Alliance Partners with Office of the Governor to Begin Development of Poverty Reduction Strategies

October 28, 2008

As a result of Heartland Alliance's ground-breaking From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois, the Office of the Governor is partnering with Heartland Alliance to hold "Opportunities for Change: Taking Action to End Extreme Poverty in Illinois" on December 9-10 in Evanston, Illinois. This summit, held in conjunction with International Human Rights Day, is designed to engage stakeholders from across Illinois in the newly created Commission on the Elimination of Poverty.

This commission, championed by the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign, will developed a poverty elimination strategy for Illinois that will be consistent with international human rights standards and cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. With close to 700,000 individuals in our state living at 50 percent of the poverty line or lower, the work of the commission and the summit are vital to creating real opportunity for all Illinoisans.

"The Opportunities for Change Summit is an important step towards identifying and acting on specific proposals that will provide real opportunity for people in Illinois experiencing extreme poverty," said Sid Mohn, president of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. "I and my colleagues on the new Commission on the Elimination of Poverty are excited to engage in this conversation and use the ideas coming from the summit to create a plan that will realize the human rights of the most vulnerable in our state."

The summit will feature national experts, including author and activist Marian Wright Edelman, and provide the opportunity for individuals to begin to craft the short and long term solutions that will allow Illinois to live up the goal of eliminating poverty set out in the preamble of the state's constitution.

The From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign is a grassroots, human rights campaign to create the political will and substantive plans to end poverty in Illinois. Over 250 organizations, congregations, and communities, as well as over 1600 individuals from across Illinois have endorsed the campaign and our working in coalition to make freedom from poverty a reality for all.

Endorse the campaign and its efforts. 

 

 

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