Poverty may be the most troubling and complex social problems we face. According to the World Bank, more than 768.5 billion people were experiencing poverty around the world in 2017. Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, the United States is home to around 40 million people in poverty. 

The Florida State University College of Social Work will host a daylong conference that examines the challenges of poverty and ways that they can be addressed.

The conference, “Poverty in America: A range of critical perspectives on its causes, effects and possible solutions.” is a collaboration among the FSU College of Social Work and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. The event features national experts in the areas of the economic and social impacts of poverty.

“This interactive conference provides an exceptional opportunity for participants to work directly with experts in their field to bring greater social consciousness to the often-unseen impacts of poverty and to think about innovative approaches towards its amelioration,” said Jim Clark, dean of the College of Social Work. “Through these presentations and the resulting dialogue, we can work together to gain insights into ways of addressing this persistent and pervasive social problem.”

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Friday, March 1st from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at the Augustus Turnbull Conference Center (555 W. Pensacola Street) in Tallahassee, Florida.

The conference is the creation of FSU College of Social Work Associate Professor Tomi Gomory, Ph.D. together with his colleagues Associate Professor Jeffrey Lacasse, Ph.D., and Doctoral Student Dan Dunleavy . Dr. Gomory said that as an educator, he sees the role of the academic community as a critical participant in addressing serious society issues like poverty by helping our students to become effective change agents in our challenging world.

“The impact of issues like poverty can be pervasive, even throughout a wealthy society like the United States. Sometimes they are easy to ignore, but poverty is a nagging society challenge that has persisted over the decades,” Gomory said. “Today we are in a better position to use empirical research and well tested collaborative knowledge to inform and influence positive social change by helping individual members impacted by poverty.”

FSU is bringing the issue of poverty to the forefront as a conversation for the academic community and general public through civil and social discourse. Some of the influential speakers taking part in this conference include:

• Karl Widerquist is an Associate Professor of philosophy and economics at Georgetown University – Qatar. He specializes in distributive justice – the ethics of who has what. His research agenda is driven by the belief that the most difficult thing any society to do is to avoid oppressing disadvantaged people. He is called “a leader of the worldwide basic income movement by Atlantic Monthly.
• David Stiffler is the Vice President of Global Corporate Social Responsibility at Equifax, Inc. His work centers around fostering financial capability across Equifax’s global cities. He is responsible for the creative and implementation of the company’s community investment strategies.
• Kirby Burkholder is the President of Social Impact Accelerator, Illinois Facility Fund (IFF) (Community Development Financial Institution). He manages IFF’s research and evaluation practice, talent management, proactive real estate development efforts, and comprehensive place-based initiatives.
• Jenny Jones is Dean and Professor at the School of Social Work, Clark Atlanta University. She is also a Graduate Faculty Affiliate at Florida State University. She holds more than twenty years of professional experience in higher education, public child welfare service systems, and HIV/AIDS community based multi-service organizations and applied research
• Carrie Pettus-Davis is an Associate Professor at the College of Social Work, Florida State University and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Justice Research and Development. She is one of social work’s leading experts in criminal justice and decarceration.

Each speaker will start with a presentation followed by a question and answer session. The five main speaker presentations are followed by two breakout sessions focused on the topics of “Poverty and Women” and “Poverty and Homelessness.”

The “Poverty and Women” breakout session will be run by FSU College of Social Work faculty members Melissa Radey and Carol Edwards. Dr. Radey is an Associate Professor with a research focus on poverty and single mothers with extensive knowledge of economic and social barriers to self-sufficiency as well as access to fundamental services like education, employment, and healthcare.  Ms. Edwards is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Title IV-E Coordinator with a background in child welfare, domestic violence, family social work, and women’s issues.

The “Homelessness” breakout session will be run by Monique Ellsworth and Tomi Gomory. Monique Ellsworth is the Executive Director of the Kearney Center and the Chief Operating Officer of CESC, Inc., CESC, Inc. is the nonprofit organization that operates The Kearney Center, an emergency shelter and services center for individuals experiencing homelessness and economic hardship and its affiliated facilities and programs. Tomi Gomory is an Associate Professor at the FSU College of Social Work with a research background in homelessness, international social work, mental health, research methods, social work practice and social policy.

The event will provide free continuing education credits for social work practitioners.

To register for the conference, visit http://bit.ly/PovertyConference2019.