The Department announced on September 30th, 2005, $1.4 million in cooperative agreements to support continued research and evaluation of important and emerging social policy issues associated with the nature, causes, correlates, and effects of income dynamics, poverty, individual and family functioning, and child well-being. The three grantees for the area centers are the University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Kentucky, and University of Washington.
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On June 20, 2005, ASPE announced the availability of funds for area poverty research centers. The announcement continued ASPEs longstanding support of poverty centers and marked the continuation of a recent ASPE poverty research initiative the Area Poverty Research Center. These centers will focus on issues of regional or state interest in order to enhance further the understanding of the nature, causes, correlates, and effects of poverty, and programs and policies to ameliorate it.
ASPE also continues its program of support for a National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan which plans and conducts a broad program of policy research and mentoring of emerging scholars to describe and analyze national, regional, and state environments (e.g., economics, demographics) and policies affecting the poor, particularly those families with children who are poor or at-risk of being poor. This research and evaluation program focuses on important and emerging social policy issues associated with the nature, causes, correlates, and effects of income dynamics, poverty, individual and family functioning, and child well-being.
The new area research center cooperative agreements are going to qualified institutions to provide a focused agenda expanding our understanding of the causes, consequences, and effects of poverty in local geographic areas or specific substantive areas, especially in states or regional areas of high concentrations of poverty.
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University of
Wisconsin-Madison: Area Poverty Research Center
The Institute for Research on Povertys (IRP) Area Poverty Research
Center will focus its agenda on the Midwestern states. The primary focus
will be on innovations in state and local anti-poverty programs, development
of locally relevant data sources, qualitative research on the institutional
and administrative aspects of program design, state welfare issues, and a
strengthening of the
Midwest
Peer Assistance Welfare Network (WELPAN). The dissemination strategy
consists of primarily web-based publications, but will build on an extensive
circulation and recognition of the Institutes existing newsletter,
FOCUS. The center will provide support, training and mentoring to
graduate research fellows each year covered by the cooperative agreement
and encourage students to pursue graduate degrees in poverty-related fields
by increasing the visibility of these issues in various curricula.
University of
Kentucky: Kentucky Center for Poverty Research
The University of Kentucky continues an interdisciplinary area center with
a research focus on Kentucky and the South. A focused research agenda on
the causes, consequences, and effects of poverty and its correlates in this
region is critical, because 1) poverty and income inequality are more pronounced
in the South than the nation as a whole, 2) cash welfare and food stamp
utilization is likewise higher in the South, and 3) labor market opportunities
are weaker in this region relative to the nation. Institutional resources
at the university include a community of poverty scholars, social and behavioral
science programs, and numerous research centers and institutes. An internal
executive committee and national advisory committee will guide the long-term
direction of the center. To foster additional research, the center will support
a competitive internal grants program, a regional small grants competition,
and a seminar series. Mentoring activities will include an emerging scholars
program to support young, untenured poverty scholars; a dissertation fellowship
program; research assistantships for graduate and undergraduate students;
and courses on poverty issues. Dissemination will be conducted through a
web page, working paper series, quarterly regional written policy briefs,
and on-site policy briefings at annual meetings of policymakers.
University of Washington: West
Coast Poverty Research Center
The University of Washington will create the West Coast Poverty Research
Center (WCPRC) to advance knowledge about the causes and consequences of
poverty and about effective policy responses to poverty in the states and
communities in the West Coast. The initial three-year research agenda for
the WCPRC will focus research activities on the economic and social well-being
of families within the contexts of both changing labor markets and
transformations in the organization of family life. The Center will focus
on the West Coast (i.e. the states of Washington, Oregon, and California)
as an area of regional interest and as a site for advancing nationally
significant knowledge about poverty and public policy. The Center will focus
on cross-cutting substantive annual research themes. For year 1, the proposed
theme is: The Second Generation: Economic and Social Well-being
Among Children of Immigrants. The WCPRC will work to encourage the
incorporation of subject matter related to poverty and social policy in graduate
and undergraduate education, and increase the visibility of poverty issues
through dissemination, outreach, and educational activities involving academics,
policymakers and practitioners.
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To obtain a printed copy of a report, mail or fax the title and your name and mailing address to:
Human Services Policy, Room 404E
Home Pages:
National and Area
Poverty Research Centers Main Page
Human Services Policy
(HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
(ASPE)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Last update 10/21/05