Digital Commons Network^™

Challenging Homelessness, Elizabeth D. Marshall

SURGE

I had been homeless for about 28 hours. I sat on a sidewalk in Georgetown with a friend holding a cardboard sign that read, “Put a Smile on Our Faces” with a Dunkin Donuts cup at our feet. In the two and a half hours we sat there, hundreds of people passed, hundreds of people avoided eye contact, hundreds of people detoured around the lamppost on the street side of the sidewalk. A few people glanced at our sign. [excerpt]

New Local Poverty Estimates For Coles County: Decreasing Incomes, Rising Poverty, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Cutting Snap And A Call To Action (Letter To The Editor), Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Stepping Up To The Plate, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Rajesh Chakraborti talks about how CSR is embedded in everything that Reliance does, in an attempt to limit poverty in India.

2012 Census Estimates!, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Snap On Poverty, Laura Tiehen, Dean Jolliffe, Timothy Smeeding

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

On signing the Food Stamp Act of 1964, President Johnson noted that “as a permanent program, the food stamp plan will be one of our most valuable weapons for the war on poverty” (Johnson, 1964). From a humble beginning of 2.9 million recipients per month and $228 million in benefits in 1969 (earliest national figures), the program has grown to serve 47 million persons with benefits of over $74.6 Billion in 2012 (USDA, 2013a). In the late 60’s and early 70’s, when the average monthly benefit was under $20 per month per month, we did not record the effects of …

Fearless: Nadejiah Towns, Nadejiah Z. Towns

SURGE

This week we would like to recognize Nadejiah Towns ’15 as a fearless fighter against poverty. This summer she has served as a Heston intern for the South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) and has spent the majority of her time with the Work Ready program, a “welfare to work” organization that helps low-income community members gain the skills needed to by obtaining a reliable, professional job and become self-sufficient.

Fearless: Heather Thomas, Heather L. Thomas

SURGE

This week we would like to recognize recent graduate and AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer Heather Thomas ’13, who is returning to Gettysburg as the fearless new coordinator for the Adams County Food Policy Council. [excerpt]

Milking The System: Do Poor People Deserve Fresh Food?, Melanie M. Meisenheimer

SURGE

Poor Americans are all lazy, selfish people who must first prove their worth as human beings if they want to be able to feed their children.

It sounds harsh, stereotypical, and judgmental when you put it like that, and few people would feel comfortable saying that exact phrase. However, it’s a perception of poverty in America that I’ve found still has a strong grip on our way of thinking. [excerpt]

Not Quite Out On The Streets: Examining Protective And Risk Factors For Housing Insecurity Among Low-Income Urban Fathers, Colleen E. Wynn

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It has long been acknowledged that housing is essential for access to employment, social services, healthcare, and other forms of assistance that help move people out of poverty. Through identifying dimensions of housing insecurity, policymakers, as well as researchers, will have a better understanding of the protective factors that make families more secure and the risk factors that raise their level of insecurity. These analyses use resident and non-resident, low-income, urban fathers’ responses to the five publicly available waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (n = 4378) dataset to examine the relationship between protective and risk factors and …

Beacon Voyages For Service: 2013 Alternative Spring Break Trip To The Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, Sherrod Williams

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This March, fourteen UMass Boston students traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to address the pressing issues of poverty faced by the Oglala Lakota people by assisting in construction efforts such as repairing stairwells, building children’s bunk beds, and installing protective skirting around mobile homes to help increase the overall quality of life on the reservation. In conjunction with the service work, special attention was placed on fostering relationships and participating in a cultural exchange with the Oglala Lakota community that has created awareness about the tribulations faced by the United States of America’s most disadvantaged …

The Demographic Foundation Of Education In The Great Plains, David J. Drozd, Robert F. Blair, Jerry Deichert

Presentations

Presented at the School Conslidation in the Great Plains 2013 Symposium in Kearney, Nebraska.

Teaching Social Justice To Middle School Aged Children, Stacey J. Gerstung

Honors Program Projects

Early adolescents find themselves in a very unique juncture of life. Even though these students in the middle grades are often troublesome to adults, they have the ability to perceive deep truths and are making decisions that will affect the way they live the rest of their lives. This transitional time between childhood and adulthood is the prime time to introduce students to important concepts, such as the need to seek social justice. For this project, lessons regarding various aspects of social justice were taught to the Middle School/Jr. High Youth Group at College Church of the Nazarene in Bourbonnais, …

Guest Column: Local Poverty A Growing Issue That Needs To Be Addressed, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Wesley Umc To Host Gillespie’S Coles County Poverty Presentation, Journal Gazette & Times-Courier

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Coles County Census Tracts, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Coles County In Comparison To Regional, State, And U.S. Poverty Levels, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Families In Poverty, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Coles County Poverty Maps, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Food Insecurity Infographic, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Food Insecurity, Michael D. Gillespie Ph.D.

Coles County Poverty Data Project

No abstract provided.

Correlates Of Hunger: Evidence From The Community Based Monitoring System (Cbms) Data Of Pasay City, Frumencio F. Co, Rechel G. Arcilla, Shirlee R. Ocampo

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Hunger is one of the major problems in several countries, and the objective to reduce it has become a global concern. A major initiative of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDG) is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. However, the attempt to reduce the abovementioned issues, calls for proper identification as to who the impoverished and hungry are. There are several ways to identify the poor, but pinpointing who the hungry are, is another task.

Remarital Chances, Choices, And Economic Consequences: Issues Of Social And Personal Welfare, Kevin Shafer, Todd M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

Many divorced women experience a significant decline financial, social, physical and psychological well-being following a divorce. Using data from the NLSY79 (n = 2,520) we compare welfare recipients, mothers, and impoverished women to less marginalized divorcees on remarriage chances. Furthermore, we look at the kinds of men these women marry by focusing on the employment and education of new spouses. Finally, we address how remarriage and spousal quality (as defined by education and employment) impact economic well-being after divorce. Our results show that remarriage has positive economic effects, but that is dependent upon spousal quality. However, such matches are …