New Pathways to Prosperity
For the last year, the Citizens League has been developing a project to address poverty in Minnesota. We are currently organizing a group to make recommendations based on our work over the past year. If you are interested in following this effort and want more information, contact Janna Caywood (jcaywood[at]citizensleague.org or 651-293-0575 x15).
The Citizens League has developed this framing document that will be the foundation of the next phase. Our findings and conclusions include:
- Poverty in Minnesota is a Catch-22: What you need most is what you don't have - money and connections - and the legal pathways to get more money and connections force you to lose more resources than you gain through increased earnings.
- Rather than support pathways to independence, the incentives in government policies to address poverty actually create more of a series of barriers that create a bureaucratic maze that has no exit for many who are in poverty.
- We need a discussion about distribution. Much of the rhetoric that has grown out of the last 40 years of a program-based approach to poverty suggests that current poverty policies are in place to achieve a "redistribution" of resources. This assumes that there is a valid, principled distribution of resources before any "redistribution" takes place.
The key question: What are some of the ideas and tools that would fundamentally address the Catch-22s inherent in our approach to poverty?
Building on Phases I and II, a committee is currently working to develop recommendations to answer this question, based on the above framing document.
Meetings
All meetings are held 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
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October 15, 2009 Flannery Construction October 22, 2009 Center for Changing Lives October 27, 2009 Wilder Foundation November 5, 2009 Center for Changing Lives November 12, 2009 Wilder Foundation December 3, 2009 Wilder Foundation December 10, 2009 Wilder Foundation December 17, 2009 Wilder Foundation |
January 7, 2010 Children's Home Society January 14, 2010 Children's Home Society January 21, 2010 Children's Home Society January 28, 2010 Children's Home Society Meeting locations: Flannery Construction 1375 Saint Anthony Ave., St. Paul Center for Changing Lives 2400 Park Ave. S, Minneapolis Wilder Foundation 451 Lexington Pkwy N, St. Paul Children's Home Society 1605 Eustis Street, St. Paul |
Committee Resources
Click here for links to example programs and policies the committee will review.
This project has developed in three phases:
Phase I (Fall-Winter 2008)
In Phase I of the Poverty Project, we held a series of conversations with policy leaders and other citizens to begin to think about ways to reframe discussions about poverty in Minnesota, and to begin in a way that will lead to policy changes.
See the Citizens League policy blog and the November issue of the Minnesota Journal for the complete results of these discussions.
Phase II (Spring-Summer 2009)
Phase II has taken some of the key ideas from Phase I deeper, with people who are more directly impacted by poverty -- including the organizations they interact with -- to better understand the real trade-offs in our policy decisions.
Outcomes:- Build relationships between policymakers in all areas in order to be prepared to advance ideas as they are developed.
- Develop a new model to address policies relating to "poverty" that will reflect the work that happens throughout organizations. This will reframe our thinking about poverty and promote engagement in solutions.
- Develop findings and conclusions that will be taken up by a group focusing on recommendations in Phase III.
Phase III (Fall-Winter 2009)
Organize a group to develop recommendations based on the findings and conclusions from Phases I and II.