Recently, The Brookings Institute hosted a public seminar on "Poverty Reduction Strategies for the Next Decade" at its offices in Washington, DC.  I attended along with DCHA Family Commissioner Aquarius Gharsi-Van and a few other community oriented residents.

My interest in learning about strategies that might reduce poverty comes from my personal frustrations over my years of professional and personal efforts to  combat the ills that poverty brings to families and communities.

As part of my staff role in Community Relations, I often talk with our residents and work in support of community efforts to cope with the impacts of poverty in our ward.   I struggle to understand how city services, other service resources and public policies combined with community action can undo what looks like a lack of personal responsibility by the individuals who are caught up in poverty.  It is clear that poverty follows when individuals drop out of school, fail to gain living wage employment, have children out of wedlock and engage in crime.  The cycle continues in families with the next generation, though exceptions do occur and some at-risk children and families break out and lead successful lives.  It is not entirely clear why this is true, but it is critical that we continue to try to unlock the answer.

The policy experts at the Brookings event shed some light on this question, and provided some insights on how poverty could be understood partly as a direct outcome of public policies that cause and perpetuate the problems that families in poverty experience.  I believe that a better understanding of poverty can lead us to a better understanding of the forces affecting people in our communities who are living in poverty and suggest some community-based interventions that may be effective in helping families and neighborhoods break the cycles of poverty in the next decade.

Excerpts and summaries of the presentations and papers of various experts that appear to be most useful will appear on this blog over the next few weeks.  The complete papers can be viewed by clicking here.