New Report Highlights Replicable Strategies for Addressing Poverty Locally

January 21, 2010

CHICAGO—In the midst of the recession, the state budget crisis, and historic unemployment rates, local communities are grappling with how to meet the needs of the growing number of individuals and families experiencing extreme poverty and hardship. Poverty Elimination Strategies that Work, a report released Thursday by Heartland Alliance, highlights numerous local solutions being used by communities around the state and the country. This report is a tool kit for local planning to help neighborhood groups, faith communities, service providers, policymakers, and others, creating solutions that fundamentally address poverty.

The web-based report provides more than 50 Poverty Elimination Strategies that Work—from adult literacy programs and Transitional Jobs to carpooling and child care—along with links to more information and additional resources.
   
“This report is meant to be both a catalyst to move individuals and organizations to take action in their own communities and a tool to help connect people experiencing poverty with existing programs and resources,” said Kimberly Drew, policy associate with Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. “We must advocate for changing systems and policies in tandem with local program implementation if we want to have any real impact on poverty levels in our state and realize human rights.”

The report was developed not only as a resource for local communities but also with an eye toward a much broader and ambitious goal. The strategies highlighted in the report will be considered as possible recommendations for a comprehensive statewide plan currently being developed by the Illinois Commission on the Elimination of Poverty.  Heartland Alliance worked with the Illinois legislature to establish the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty that is charged with creating a substantive, measurable plan, grounded in human rights standards, to cut extreme poverty in Illinois in half by the year 2015.
 

Media Contact(s):

Kimberly Drew
312.870.4948
kdrew@heartlandalliance.org

Doug Schenkelberg
312.870.4947
dschenkelberg@heartlandalliance.org

Attachment:

Poverty Elimination Strategies That Work: New Report Highlights Replicable Strategies for Addressing Poverty Locally

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Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights helps people who are threatened the most by poverty or danger improve their lives and realize their human rights. For more than 120 years we have been providing solutions—both through services and advocacy—creating paths from crisis to stability and on to success. Our work in housing, health care, legal protections, and economic security supports more than 600,000 people annually, helping them build a better future.