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Infographic

Works Cited

“Employment and Poverty.” UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, poverty.ucdavis.edu/post/employment-and-poverty-0.

Hansen, Claire. “States With the Highest Poverty Rate.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 26 Sept. 2017, 4:33 p.m., www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/the-10-states-with-the-highest-poverty-rate. 

Organization. “Get Involved: 5 Organizations Fighting Hunger And Poverty In The U.S.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Sept. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/us-hunger-and-poverty-way_n_1558966.html.

“Poverty Facts.” Poverty Solutions at The University of Michigan, poverty.umich.edu/about/poverty-facts/.

“The Population of Poverty USA.” Poverty USA, povertyusa.org/facts.

Vallas, Rebecca, et al. “Top Ten Solutions to Cut Poverty.” Talk Poverty, 5 Mar. 2018, talkpoverty.org/2014/09/17/top-10-solutions-cut-poverty-grow-middle-class/.

“What Is Poverty?” Oregon Center for Public Policy, www.ocpp.org/poverty/2018-poverty-guidelines/.

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Civic Action Assessment of Issue

1. My duty as a citizen of this country is to be able to exercise my rights and use the Amendments in ways that will benefit society. The most important one to exercise as a citizen is the 1st Amendment, which is the freedom of speech, religion, the press, assembly, and to petition the government. As a citizen of this country, I can speak out about what I believe in.

2. In order for our country to progress, the people of this country must have a say and participate in helping our country progress. It is important to be on top of the latest news/current events as even having opinions on them can lead to many things. The citizens of this country are very fortunate to have the rights we do as many countries don’t have this luxury and we should be taking advantage of it as much as we can.

3. No one is ever obliged to do anything, so I don’t believe that it is my civic obligation to address this issue. Citizens are encouraged to do things and I feel like if I wanted to, I could help shine some more light on this topic. 

4. I volunteered at a soup kitchen in late March of 2018. My friend’s mom is the head chef of a soup kitchen in Berkeley and I asked my friend if I could tag along and she said yes. It was my second time volunteering at the soup kitchen as well so I had some knowledge of how it ran. It’s something I would do again and it was nice to be able to talk to new people there. It made me feel as if I were helping to make some people’s life a little bit more manageable. 

5. In the future, I could volunteer at more soup kitchens. I would invite my friends so then if they enjoyed doing it, they would invite their friends. Even making a few more people aware does a lot.

Here are some pictures I took while at the soup kitchen:

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The 3P Assessment: Parties, Political Interest Groups, and PACs

The Green Party focuses more on the environmental impacts of poverty and how they strive for the creation of equal societies where everyone has chances to rise into the safety net. The Libertarian Party sees poverty as government’s wrongdoing, how the government “sucks the oxygen out of families... and the very poor that it purports to help”. There really is not anything directly about poverty from the Libertarian Party that I could see. The Democratic and The Republican Party have similar views when it comes to poverty. Both parties want to help Americans by creating jobs, the first step in helping those in poverty to be lifted out of it. The Peace and Freedom party acknowledge that many minority families are victimized by cutbacks in health care, welfare, and jobs and demand non-discrimination in hiring and promotion. They believe that poverty breeds crime and repression and that the working class has fallen victim to it. 

I agree with all them on most points. The environment has been affected much by poverty, as those in poverty have to choose between living or helping the environment. Poverty has greatly affected many Americans and with the creation of jobs and applying programs to help those in poverty, there would be fewer Americans in poverty

I identify with the Democratic Party as I have similar views on the topic. There were about 15.5 million jobs created under Obama which helped many Americans.

The national interest group I chose was the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.

They ensure that people in poverty or of low income are able to access basic needs such as healthcare, housing, and opportunities by helping to pass laws and policies.

This group advocates for racial equality and has a racial justice training institute where  “It is more important than ever for equal justice advocates to understand and address issues of race, implicit bias, and how to affirmatively advance racial equity”. They have been around for 50 years and have listed many of their achievements such as helping households keep food on their tables and ensuring children are obtaining affordable health care. Many of the people on the governing board work for companies like Google and Haynes and Boone, LLP, which means that they have supporters from big companies to help expose the public to this group.

They are in support of the Protect Our Care Bill which would require the Illinois General Assembly to approve any waivers proposed by the Governor’s office that would affect coverage under the ACA or Medicaid, ensuring any attempts to restrict access to healthcare are open to public debate and scrutiny.

Their office is based in Illinois and there is an event that looks to be online. I would probably be able to watch it if it is online.

The volunteer opportunities are broad and there aren’t direct volunteer opportunities that directly benefit the group.

It was interesting how they offer courses such as community lawyering, leadership for justice, and much more. They have been around for 50 years and have done much to help the nation.

The California interest group is the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Poverty Working Group.

This group aims to explore key strategies and policies to reduce poverty in our communities.

There is not much on the website as it is a sub-page to the CSAC main website. It has information for people to read on like being able to make jobs so that all Americans can live financially stable. They also have their agenda on the website but it’s from late 2016. Most of the information is somewhat outdated so I can’t really pick out 5 things that seem to pop out. I couldn't find anything that the CSAC endorsed.

The group is stated in Sacramento, CA and there aren’t any meetings I could attend. There are not any volunteer opportunities as well.

The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law is more organized and for sure up to date. It’s easy to find everything and you’re able to easily recognize what they stand for.

I couldn’t find any PACs on poverty and the one I found had $25 and no other information.

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Executive Action Assessment of Issue

Executive Action Assessment of Issue

My topic is under Health and Human Services, but on the website, it is listed under Social Programs. Trump has passed an Executive Order called Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility. Trump's stand on poverty is similar to many. He wants to help those who are struggling to get by implementing affordable services and programs. He wants to get people back into the workforce and living financially stable. His policies are set to reduce poverty but many people are claiming that with new policies in place, poverty will rise. I agree with the idea of reducing poverty as poverty is damaging to the economy AND the environment. Under the Social Programs page, their mission statement says how America has spent trillions on anti-poverty programs and while seniors living in need have decreased, poverty for working-age Americans is stagnant. They want to get citizens into the safety net and create programs to make services more affordable for Americans. So far, Trump has proposed the Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility, which claims to help self-sufficiency, well-being, and prosperity.

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Legislative Action

Mark Desaulnier is a member of the Out of Poverty Caucus, which was formed in response to the rising numbers of Americans in the middle class falling into poverty. He wants to be able to help Americans out of poverty and keep those at risk from falling into poverty.

Kamala Harris wants to work towards increasing minimum wages, as well as decrease the number of people in poverty. In May 2017, she supported the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.

Dianne Feinstein wants to help Americans stay out of poverty and help those in poverty get back up onto their feet. She adopted the manifesto, “A New Agenda for the New Decade”. She wants to help working families out of poverty. In January 2015, she and Senator Rob Portman introduced the Homeless Children and Youth Act, which would make it easier for homeless children, youth, and families to receive homeless assistance. 

There are a lot of bills on the issue of poverty and I decided to go with is the Pathways Out of Poverty Act (H.R.4074). This bill will strengthen current anti-poverty programs. This bill will focus more on what is helping people out of poverty more so than making new initiatives to fight it. I would support this bill because poverty is beginning to plague the United States and if we focus more energy into the programs that help people out of poverty, we can help the country stray away from it. It was first introduced in the House of Representatives. That is all that has happened. I’m satisfied with the amount of effort that the states have done to stop the rise of poverty but it seems like the country as a whole plus the cities within states are not putting in the effort necessary to stop the rise. 

the article I chose was about 2 ministers wanting to revive the campaign that MLK started to end poverty. The author is Julia Craven from the Huffington Post. It mainly talks about 2 ministers wanting to “reignite Martin Luther King’s vision”. The ministers believe that religion, racism, and poverty all aline with each other. They explain that MLK’s movement was not just for the blacks but for all people and that they can to do the same by not just focusing on the black people in poverty but everyone. The intended audience is anyone wanted to help their communities and give back. There really is not a bias from the author as she is interviewing the ministers and passing information back to people who are reading her article. The significance of this article was to put light on continuing what Martin Luther King had and to have people follow the ministers into helping their local communities. I agree with this article because poverty is dangerous and religion can help people out of it. Racism also goes hand in hand with poverty as most people in poverty are black and our society still has trouble giving the black community chances.

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State Action

Steve Glazer supports the movement to decrease the rise of poverty. He wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2022. I agree with him because poverty can be preventable if we gave those in poverty more chances and these changes could start with a higher minimum wage. He supports Senate Bill 3, "a balanced plan that will lift millions out of poverty with a minimum wage increase while providing long-term stability and predictability for employers". Catharine Baker also supports the movement. She co-wrote AB 1520, the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force, which will ser framework to drastically reduce child poverty with solutions such as affordable early childhood education, after-school and summer programs, job training, and much more. I support her ideal because the children of this generation if educated can help fix many of the future's problems and can make the changes needed to live a sustainable and healthy future.

A bill pertaining to poverty is AB 1520, the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force. It was approved on October 2nd, 2017. This is a bill I would support because, for families in poverty, these after school and summer programs are crucial in not only helping children gain knowledge but also a way for parents to work their jobs with the assurance that their kid is in good hands while learning. The bill's goal is to reduce the overall child poverty rate in the state and with what it plans on implementing, I think California is on the way to doing that.

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Constitutional Issues

A case regarding poverty is called Sheff v. O’Neill. It was decided in the 1995-1996 term. In April of 1989, Milo Sheff and 17 other of his classmates filed a lawsuit through their parents regarding the issue of equality between schools with a predominantly white population. In 1996, the court ruled that the state had an affirmative obligation to provide Connecticut's school children with a substantially equal educational opportunity. I agree with this decision because it was almost the start of the 21st century yet Connecticut had still instilled a type of segregation within impoverished areas. Everyone has an equal right to education.

The subject of the article I found was the rise of Extreme Poverty in the U.S. The author is Premilla Nadasen. The article talks about how poverty may be a part of the culture of the U.S. and how the safety net is slowly getting lower and lower. The intended audience is the public. The author's perspective is that poverty is beginning to increase and that we may be having an increase of people going into extreme poverty. The significance if this article is to increase the awareness that many people are still in poverty and they be getting worse. I agree with this because despite the number of jobs that have been made, there are still many families in need and there has not been much of a significance in the change to get them out.

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Economic Assessment of Issue

Poverty is an issue that many individuals are affected by because of individuals not being able to earn enough to keep a roof over them and to not be able to purchase basic necessities. Individuals under the poverty threshold are considered to be in poverty and those who are 50% under the threshold are considered to be in deep poverty. 

The resolution of poverty is a need. If we were to get everyone out of poverty, our economy would flourish. People would be able to pay for rent, basic necessities, and other things. With buying products comes implementing money into our economy. Our economy flourishes on supply and demand and if everyone were to be out of poverty, they would be able to buy more, which is an increase in demand and there would be a need in supply as well. There is a direct relationship between supply and demand so if we increase one side, the other will follow. If we can slowly get rid of poverty, our environment will also benefit. The environment is what humans use to thrive on earth. If we can decrease poverty, our environment can be preserved for the better and our economy will also thrive because of the environment. 

There are many services that are in place to help those in poverty. Food stamps are part of the Department of Social Services. These programs help improve the “health and well-being of qualified households and individuals by providing them a means to meet their nutritional values” (ca.org). Soup kitchens are open to feed people who can’t feed themselves with the right nutritious foods, communities donate clothing, and donate to charities. 

Poverty Prevention Programs would be implemented. Those at or under the poverty line will be able to find jobs and get back on their feet. If we focus on increasing the amount of labor done, those workers will be able to obtain more money and the economy and society will benefit. With labor comes wages and if we have more revenue coming in, companies will be able to increases wages, which then benefits all workers. Education is a big factor in helping prevent poverty from increasing. Educating children will help increase their understanding of the world and can help them with ways to help communities in need.

Helping decrease poverty has a big economic incentive. If we were to help those in poverty get out of the threshold, the economy would have more consumers to buy products. If there are more consumers in the economy, that means there will be more money put into the economy. More consumers equal a greater need to supply more. If supply is high, that means more products will be out for sale and consumers will be able to buy more. It can be a positive feedback cycle where the more you put in, the more you get out of it. A general community incentive in resolving this issue is to be able to beautify our communities. By adding more trees or plants, communities will be more desirable to live in, resulting in more people putting money into the community, tying back into the economic incentive. 

In order to focus on solving this issue, we would have to take funding out of certain programs. For example, we could be taking funds out of military spending and focus it into a poverty program. We would also need to have the dedication of most of our country in order to shine a light and resolve the situation. Many people do not understand the topic of poverty and we would need to put so much focus just to educate them instead of just jumping into fixing it. 

What is listed above is worth the risk. If we are able to get these people out of poverty by needing to educate hundreds of millions of people and by cutting spending from other funded programs, it will be worth it. If we can resolve the problem, we can then put more money back into the economy. After that, we can put more money back into programs that were cut by funding.

The upper class and big businesses benefit from poverty. The higher-ups are able to make so much money. Large businesses are able to pay their workers low enough wages where their workers are making enough so that the businesses are making the amount they want. 

People in poverty would benefit from the solution to poverty. They will be able to go back into society as a member who can begin to live a near comfortable life. They can become big consumers in the economy as well. Startups can begin to see the effects of the solution as many people will begin to find jobs with these startups, resulting in more profit to those startups.

Poverty is an externality. When workers in low-income families are not getting paid enough because of something to do with the business, that family could move into that poverty threshold. These families have been indirectly affected by businesses.

Poverty could be reduced by the use of transfer payments. So far, the government has implemented the use of transfer payments into welfare programs and if we can find a more effective way of using them, we can start towards a path that will lead us to a future with little poverty.

This graph was created by the US Census Bureau. This really does not have a certain audience, perspective, or bias as these are statistics for the public to see. The main point is just to show the relationship between poverty rates (in income and as a percentage) and time.

Link for graph: http://www.demos.org/data-byte/growing-economy-no-progress-poverty

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Getting Started

The blog I first decided to follow is @mattblack-blackmatt. Matt Black’s blog is mainly composed of black and white photos from around the world, capturing people who are in poverty. This person had gone above and beyond by traveling 88,000 miles across 48 states to show the people of Tumblr the horrors of poverty across the United States. This blog has the power to get its point across just by black and white pictures. It’s a very interesting blog as the majority of its posts are photographs. I decided to follow this blog because I think I can obtain a better understanding of the topic through these photographs.

The five out of many people I followed on Twitter that relates to my topic is @OutofPoverty @CPAGUK @poverty_action @PovertyAlliance and @TalkPoverty. I decided to follow these accounts because many are accounts that talk about combating the rise of Poverty and some also share the stories of those in Poverty, like the Humans of New York account on Instagram. Most of their tweets are the general news updates and campaigns to prevent poverty, so none are very out there and surprising. The tweets are informative though which is great for helping research more on this topic.