Additional Resources on Understanding and Reducing Poverty
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Policy Organizations
Other Milwaukee and Wisconsin Anti-Poverty Agencies
Federal Resources
Downloadable PDF Documents
Creative Anti-Poverty Resources
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- Visit ACCESS to assess your eligibilty—or to apply—for BadgerCare Plus, Medicaid, SeniorCare, FoodShare and other state programs.
- BadgerCare Plus, a program for low-income Wisconsin residents who need and want health insurance
- Covering Kids and Families has compiled a helpful reference guide listing the various programs available in all 72 Wisconsin counties, including BadgerCarePlus, Free/Low Cost School Meals, Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance, Wisconsin Shares, FoodShare, Wisconsin Works and WIC. For listings for Milwaukee County, click here.
- Women, Infants and Children, providing supplemental nutritious foods, nutrition and breastfeeding information, and referral to other health and nutrition services to pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women, infants and children.
Policy Organizations
- Center for American Progress, “From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half” (April 2007)
- Minnesota Poverty Commission, a legislative commission to end poverty in Minnesota by 2020. See also the Minnesota Poverty Commission's Poverty Research Resources.
- National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, “State Strategies to Reduce Child and Family Poverty” (June 2008)
- The New York Center for Opportunity, seeking innovative ways to reduce poverty in New York City.
- The Promising Practices Network, dedicated to providing quality evidence-based information about what works to improve the lives of children, youth, and families.
- Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a non-parisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States.
- UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty. See specifically their Wisconsin Poverty Report (April 2009) and Wisconsin Poverty Report: New Measure, Broader View (September 2010).
- UWM Center for Economic Development.
See specifically their Monthly Employment Watch: Milwaukee and the Nation's Largest Cities, a monthly report on employment trends in the nation’s largest cities (February 2009)Other Milwaukee and Wisconsin Anti-Poverty Agencies and Programs
Federal Resources
Downloadable PDF Documents
- Wisconsin Poverty Report (April 2009) and Wisconsin Poverty Report: New Measure, Broader View (September 2010)
- Health Reform: An Exploration of State Options Related to Health Insurance Exchanges
- State health policy makers have incredible discretion over the design, operation and waivers related to health care exchanges. Policymakers, consumers and advocates can use this document as a guide to those decision points.
- The Affordable Care Act: Pressure Points for Addiction Treatment
- The Affordable Care Act: Pressure Points for Addiction Treatment PPI analyzed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a focus on the many “pressure points,” as we refer to them, that the law has created for advocates of improved addition treatment. Our analysis led to the identification of more than thirty “pressure points,” including a web of new agencies, task forces and institutes; new research and prevention initiatives; expanded and new health delivery and coverage systems, including state health insurance exchanges; and new coverage plans and plan requirements. We developed this report and the accompanying presentation for interested advocates to use as a guide in targeting their advocacy efforts.
- The Affordable Care Act: Pressure Points for Poverty
- This presentation explores the changes made by the Affordable Care Act to America's health insurance system and the many pressure points created for those who are poor and for reducing poverty.
Creative Anti-Poverty Resources
The strategy for greatly reducing poverty that the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute has chosen to pursue did not come out of thin air. Rather, the Institute’s strategy rests squarely on Milwaukee-based and other initiatives that provide evidence about what works.
Following are some of the creative initiatives that underpin the Institute’s approach and the evidence showing that these programs work and deserve to be “taken to scale” in order to provide all Milwaukee and Wisconsin residents with a clear pathway out of poverty.
The New Hope Project
A Milwaukee-based experiment that reduced poverty by offering low-income adults of all types (1) a guarantee of 30 hours of work per week in a transitional community service job if they could not find regular work, (2) a guarantee that if they worked 30 hours each week, their earnings plus the EITC plus an additional supplement would lift them above the poverty line, (3) affordable childcare and (4) affordable health insurance. Download a PDF from the New Hope Project: Milwaukee.
The Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project
This full-scale demonstration project, which the Canadian government sponsored but private agencies operated outside the welfare system in British Columbia and New Brunswick, provided long-term single-parent welfare recipients who worked at least 30 hours per week with a substantial monthly earnings supplement for up to three years.
Early Childhood Education
A growing body of research on infants’ and young children’s brain development confirms that the quality of the early learning experiences sets the stage for children’s success in school and the years beyond. High-quality child care and preschool programs that intentionally focus on improving children’s health and academic performance help reduce poverty by preparing kids for success in school and in life. Research has also shown that affordable high-quality early learning programs help low-income parents work to escape poverty, and help their children not only academically but also through reduced delinquency and crime and increased employment and wages. For information on the economic benefits of investing in early childhood education, see the May 2008 report by the Rand Corporation on “What is the Payoff of Economic Research for Early Childhood Policy?”
