GRACE Partnership to End Poverty in America

The overall goal of the DOC Partnerships to End Poverty in America is to determine the major causes of structural poverty, analyze and formulate responses to this problem, and then implement the recommended responses. The ideal responses would bring together government resources, businesses, faith-based and non-profit organizations. In order to do this, we will establish an interactive process that includes key actors from government, business, the academy and the religious community to generate practical solutions to the problems structural poverty creates. Working papers on the major theories of structural poverty and how those theories have fared when tested will be written. These papers will be reviewed for accuracy and fairness by experts in the field. The papers will provide the framework for six regional meetings of leaders in the poverty arena and those meetings in turn will generate possible solutions to the problems identified. These regional meetings will be chaired by local members of Congress. Leaders from poor communities in these six regions will also be drawn together to identify ways to reduce poverty and representatives from these groups will participate in the regional meetings.