Street Practice


Book Description

Presenting recent studies of non-profit organizations involved in poverty relief services in New York City in comparison with programmes in existence across the US, Street Practice provides a front-line, ground-level perspective on innovative research practices designed to solve community problems. It explores the manner in which organizations bridge the gap between research and policy advocacy, with an account of the ways in which research contributes to alleviating or solving a community problem, as well as details on successes and failures of advocacy work, problems and limitations of their research, funding constraints and political resistance. As such, this book not only offers compelling examples of social change in action, but also serves to introduce models for research and policy advocacy that can be applied similarly in other urban areas. Adopting a case-based learning approach that enables readers to better understand the dynamic process of research and policy advocacy, this innovative book will appeal to those with interests in poverty, homelessness, policy advocacy, social work and social change.




Sustainability and Poverty Outreach in Microfinance: the Sri Lankan Experience


Book Description

The fulfillment of the role of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in providing affordable financial services to the poor is associated with invariable challenges to MFIs, particularly in maintaining MFIs’ sustainability. The research work undertaken in this context to prepare author’s doctoral thesis has finally culminated in a book, which has comprehensively dealt with the subject of sustainability versus poverty outreach in microfinance. Overall, the results of panel data analysis confirm that there is no trade-off between sustainability and poverty outreach of MFIs. Thus, MFIs are in a position to achieve operational self-sufficiency while expanding services to the poor. Further, it is evident from logit analysis that group lending as against individual lending is strategically important for MFIs to achieve sustainability, successfully warding off the problems of asymmetric information prevailing in the rural credit markets. The book carries a detailed description on Sri Lanka’s financial sector and poverty aspects with special emphasis on microfinance sector which comprises of more than 15000 service providers under a variety of institutions with different mandates and business models. Policy discussion along with the findings of econometric analyses provides the reader with new insights especially in the absence of any other macro-level studies carried out to cover microfinance sector in Sri Lanka.




New Pathways Out of Poverty


Book Description

"Published in association with The National Teaching and Learning Forum."




Community Outreach


Book Description




Poverty in the United States


Book Description

This important text explores the deep relationships between poverty, health/mental health conditions, and widespread social problems as they affect the lives of low-income women. A robust source of both empirical findings and first-person descriptions by poor women of their living conditions, it exposes cyclical patterns of structural and environmental stressors contributing to impaired physical and mental health. Psychological conditions (notably depression and PTSD), substance use and abuse, domestic and gun-related violence, relationship instability, and hunger in low-income communities, especially among women of color, are discussed in detail. In terms of solutions, the book’s contributors identify areas for major policy reform and make potent recommendations for community outreach, wide-scale intervention, and sustained advocacy. Among the topics covered:• The intersection of women’s health and poverty.• Poverty, personal experiences of violence, and mental health.• The role of social support for women living in poverty.• The logic of exchange sex among women living in poverty.• Physical safety and neighborhood issues.• Exploring the complex intersections between housing environments and health behaviors among women living in poverty. A stark reminder that health should be considered a basic human right, Poverty in the United States: Women's Voices is a necessary reference for research professionals particularly interested in women’s studies, HIV/AIDS prevention, poverty, and social policy.




Handbook of Research on Leadership and Advocacy for Children and Families in Rural Poverty


Book Description

Rural poverty encompasses a distinctive deprivation in quality of life related to a lack of educational support and resources as well as unique issues related to geographical, cultural, community, and social isolation. While there have been many studies and accommodations made for the impoverished in urban environments, those impoverished in rural settings have been largely overlooked and passed over by current policy. The Handbook of Research on Leadership and Advocacy for Children and Families in Rural Poverty is an essential scholarly publication that creates awareness and promotes action for the advocacy of children and families in rural poverty and recommends interdisciplinary approaches to support the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of children and families in poverty. Featuring a wide range of topics such as mental health, foster care, and public policy, this book is ideal for academicians, counselors, social workers, mental health professionals, early childhood specialists, school psychologists, administrators, policymakers, researchers, and students.




Beyond Poverty


Book Description

Answering the Cry of the Poor in a Million Villages The church is facing a strategic opportunity—85 percent of people living in extreme poverty around the world reside in villages. These villages are also home to the majority of the world’s least reached people. The church has historically played an active role in wholistic ministry and alleviating global poverty with a goal of encouraging sustainable community development. However, while these outreaches may succeed in “helping without hurting,” they still often focus on limited-scope projects that provide good solutions to a single community. In Beyond Poverty, Terry Dalrymple calls us to move beyond sustainable projects in a single village to transformational movements that multiply change from village to village and sweep the countryside. Through multiple case studies based on the actual experiences of more than 900 organizations in 135 different countries, this book tells the story of a large and growing network of ministries around the world using the strategy of Community Health Evangelism to change the life of the poor forever. The principles in this book are not just a theory, but proven strategy. The church is uniquely positioned to accelerate poverty alleviation worldwide. This book will help you understand the fundamentals of catalyzing transformational movements that make disciples among the poor while lifting whole communities out of cycles of poverty and disease. This is our moment! This is your opportunity to advance a global movement and answer the cry of the poor in a million villages.




Moving Out of Poverty


Book Description

There is no peace with hunger. Only promises and promises and no fulfillment. If there is no job, there is no peace. If there is nothing to cook in the pot, there is no peace. - Oscar, a 57-year-old man, El Gorri n, Colombia They want to construct their houses near the road, and they cannot do that if they do not have peace with their enemies. So peace and the road have developed a symbiotic relation. One cannot live without the other. . . . - A community leader from a conflict-affected community on the island of Mindanao, Philippines Most conflict studies focus on the national level, but this volume focuses on the community level. It explores how communities experience and recover from violent conflict, and the surprising opportunities that can emerge for poor people to move out of poverty in these harsh contexts. 'Rising from the Ashes of Conflict' reveals how poor people s mobility is shaped by local democracy, people s associations, aid strategies, and the local economic environment in over 100 communities in seven conflict-affected countries, including Afghanistan. The findings suggest the need to rethink postconflict development assistance. This is the fourth volume in a series derived from the Moving Out of Poverty study, which explores mobility from the perspectives of poor people in more than 500 communities across 15 countries.




Programs in Aid of the Poor


Book Description

In 1964, Lyndon Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty," launching a variety of new antipoverty programs and enhancing existing ones. This war is still being fought. But with what success? And at what cost? Incorporating new data from the 2000 census, the eighth edition of Programs in Aid of the Poor provides an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of current federal programs aimed at alleviating poverty in the United States. The authors focus on programs that offer cash support, provide goods and services to poor people, address the well-being of children and youth, prepare young people to earn above-poverty incomes, and offer adults a second chance to earn their way out of poverty. They also discuss the definition of poverty, identify who the poor are, and generalize the causes of poverty. "To an extent," the authors find, "we have prosecuted our war against poverty the way Senator George Aiken of Vermont advised that we do in Vietnam: 'Declare victory and go home.' Yet the war against poverty has not been abandoned. Skirmishes continue, with widely fluctuating commitment." Co-authors Garth and Stephen Mangum and Andrew Sum have also prepared a companion volume, The Persistence of Poverty in the United States, analyzing the underlying causes of poverty and its persistence in America.




Raising Our Children Out of Poverty


Book Description

Raising Our Children Out of Poverty shows what can be done at the national and local community levels to raise children out of poverty by strengthening families, communities, and social services. br>Based on the April 1998 symposium “Raising Our Children Out of Poverty” at the Saint Louis University School of Social Service, this important book is particularly timely given the prevalence of poverty among children in the United States. Social Work practitioners and other helping advocates will discover chapters discussing the future of foster care, ecumenical housing, collaborative practice in low income communities, fostering resiliency in children, programs that are alternatives to incarceration, and an innovative family support and empowerment program. This important book will help you provide improved services to families and children living in poverty.