Poverty Education Center at Seattle University

Obama, poverty, and the media

Poverty Education Center Blog - Poverty Education Center - Matteo Ricci College - Seattle University Charles Blow in the New York Times recently discussed President Obama's remarks on the poor, and media reaction to them. The President said,

Hooray for Lisa Denis Gustaveson and the Seattle University Faith & Family Homelessness Project for this great post on the work we're doing at SU!

Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t understand how America’s poor live. But unless you’re poor, neither do you. Even people who work with the poor don't understand how hard they have it.

The ever-popular, always powerful poverty immersion workshop is coming to St. James next...

St. James Cathedral: A Poverty Workshop During the 3-hour workshop, participants will: Role play a month in the lives of low-income families meet others who care about the issue, and explore the impact of poverty on our community. St. James...

A great collaboration with the Missions Office of the Seattle Archdiocese, Maryknoll, St. James Cathedral, and the Poverty Education Center!

American public schools are increasingly becoming the preserve of poor students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/us/school-poverty-study-southern-education-foundation.html?_r=0

Study Finds Widespread Poverty Among U.S. Public School Children Just over 50 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, the Southern Education Foundation said.

The "War on Poverty" may not have been lost, but it's a long way from being won...
http://time.com/3659383/war-on-poverty-1964/

Despite the Statistics, We Haven’t Lost the War on Poverty Though it may not look like it, a stable poverty rate is consistent with anti-poverty programs that work

A really great scholar from Bosnia is coming to give a talk at SU! Check it out:

Socio-psychological Processes of Inter-group Reconciliation
Sabina Cehajic-Clancy
Associate Professor, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology

Wednesday, January 21st
4:00-5:30pm
Wyckoff Auditorium

This lecture will consider questions such as: How can post-conflict societies deal with collective guilt and shame? What are the effects of apologies and reparation offers on reconciliation? What socio-psychological processes facilitate inter-group forgiveness?

Dr. Cehajic-Clancy is the leading social psychologist in Bosnia. Her path-breaking research has shown how hostile attitudes can actually be more intense in younger post-conflict generations than in older generations that survived the conflict. She has also produced important work demonstrating how societies that have suffered collective violence and massive human rights violations can overcome negative stereotyping between formerly hostile groups and promote moral agreement and understanding. She has worked as a consultant for UNICEF, UNDP, USAID, and Save the Children UK, and directed the Balkan Institute for Conflict Resolution, Responsibility and Reconciliation.

Sponsored by the Poverty Education Center. For more information contact Dr. Ben Curtis ([email protected]).

Brown-bag lunch lecture:
(Un)sustainable Development in Post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina: Experimentation or Evidence-Based?

Thursday, January 22nd
12:30 to 1:30pm
Admin 206

Bosnia-Herzegovina is endowed with stunning natural beauty and other significant environmental resources. However, since the war in the country in the 1990s, many of its mountain areas have seen depopulation, destruction, and environmental exploitation. Tim Clancy will discuss sustainable development projects in Bosnia, as well as the lessons this country provides for protecting the environment while promoting economic growth, democracy, and post-conflict reconstruction. Tim’s current project is a region-wide trail called the Via Dinarica that extends from northern Albania into southern Slovenia. Partly inspired by the Appalachian Trail, he is bringing best practices from around the world to work with local communities in creating a sustainable natural and cultural heritage that encompasses the Dinaric Alps mountain region.

Tim Clancy is an expert on sustainable development in the western Balkans, having worked in the region since the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. In 2000 Tim started his own social business--the first of its kind in Bosnia--focusing on eco-tourism in vulnerable mountain communities. He has worked as a development consultant with the United Nations Environmental Program, the World Wildlife Fund, USAID, and the European Union. He is also the author of nine travel books for the Balkans region.

Feel free to bring your lunch for this discussion with an expert in sustainable development and ecotourism. Sponsored by the Poverty Education Center. For more information contact Dr. Ben Curtis ([email protected]).

Upcoming event for I-Week!

The Danger in Good Intentions: Student Perspectives on Voluntourism in the Global South

February 5th 1:00 to 2:00pm
PIGT 103

More and more students are studying abroad, and many are working on international projects for social justice. These kinds of experiences are sometimes criticized as "voluntourism," however. When can our efforts to do good actually have a harmful effect? In this panel, students will share international volunteer and internship experiences and weigh the positive and negative impacts of such trips in "developing" countries.

The panelists are Alice Roup (India), Michael Keenen (Nicaragua/iLeap), Ian Carrick (Indonesia), Lucas McKinnon (India), and Rebekah Sanders (Mexico). Dr. Ben Curtis will be the moderator.

Sponsored by the Poverty Education Center. For more information, contact Michael Keenen ([email protected]).

More and more evidence portrays not only the high levels of inequality in the United States, but how inequality is getting worse. A recent article in the New York Times claims:

"Before the impact of tax and spending policies is taken into account, income inequality in the United States is no worse than in most developed countries and is even a bit below levels in Britain and, by some measures, Germany. However, once the effect of government programs is included in the calculations, the United States emerges on top of the inequality heap."

The article includes some excellent graphs comparing things such as the tax burden, vacation days, and government social transfers in the US to other high-income countries. Few of the comparisons show the US in a favorable light.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opinion/inequality-unbelievably-gets-worse.html?_r=0

Inequality, Unbelievably, Gets Worse Have we become inured to the struggles of the working class?

Poverty in America is not just a problem for urban areas, or people of color. Getting past those tired stereotypes, it's clear that poverty afflicts many many people in rural America, even in predominantly white areas. In the Pacific Northwest--famed for its dynamic tech economy--a closer look reveals communities struggling to survive as older livelihoods such as logging no longer employ many people.

One such community is Sweet Home, Oregon:

"Here in east Linn County, two hours south of Portland, one in five families earns less than the federal poverty threshold. In 2012, even as the economy in Portland, the state’s biggest city, began booming again as a center of high-tech and hipster life, Oregon had the nation’s highest percentage of residents receiving federal food stamp assistance, according to the census. And from 2011 to 2013, more than 15 percent of Oregon families were sometimes uncertain about getting enough to eat, a federal study in September said."

Read the whole article from the New York Times about how the decline of the timber industry has hollowed out parts of the rural Pacific Northwest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/us/town-that-thrived-on-logging-is-looking-for-a-second-growth.html?ref=us #

Town That Thrived on Logging Is Looking for a Second Growth In a town that long relied on logging, the old jobs are long gone and the food bank has a more secure future than remaining industry.

1.6 million homeless children in America... a staggering statistic, but at least Erin Murphy is speaking out about it!

Our Firesteel partner Erin Murphy blew some minds last night on the cable news show takepart live. When Erin said there are 1.6 million children in America, host Meghan McCain asked her to repeat what she'd just said because that fact is so staggering.

Watch the show TODAY here while video is still available: http://www.takepart.com/live/video Erin's segment starts at 28:00. After today, there will be a different link that we'll share.

TakePart Live is the TV show of Participant Media, the makers of such advocacy films as An Inconvenient Truth.

Well done, Erin!