January 15, 2009

As a result of Heartland Alliance's ground-breaking From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois, the State of Illinois and several organizations partnered with Heartland Alliance to hold "Opportunities for Change: Taking Action to End Extreme Poverty in Illinois" on December 9-10 in Evanston, Illinois. The summit, held in conjunction with International Human Rights Day, engaged more than 200 stakeholders from across Illinois in the newly created Commission on the Elimination of Poverty.

This commission, championed by the Heartland Alliance's From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign, will develop a poverty elimination strategy for Illinois that will be consistent with international human rights standards and cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.

The summit featured national experts, including author and activist Marian Wright Edelman, and provided the opportunity for individuals to begin to craft the short- and long-term solutions that will allow Illinois to live up to the goal of eliminating poverty set out in the preamble of the state's constitution. Stakeholders fleshed out solutions to a wide range of challenges people experiencing poverty face, from housing and health care to employment and social supports.

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.

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