The Poverty Scholars Program

Wrapping up today is a week-long training and movement-building program for veteran and emerging low-income community grassroots anti-poverty activists.   Sponsored by the Poverty Initiative housed at Union Theological Seminary in NYC, the Poverty Scholars Program brings together more than 160 activists and ~40 organizations from around the world to learn together with the goal towards renewing Dr. Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign.

The Program has 3 objectives:

1. To hone the organizing and advocacy skills of those living in and fighting poverty;
2. To promote and link existing anti-poverty campaigns;
3. To build a global network of anti-poverty activism grounded in the human rights framework.

This is one of a growing # of organized efforts to renew Dr. King's fledging anti-poverty and workers' rights campaign that was shuttered by his assassination.  It's incredibly important for us to promote and publicize these initiatives, as too often we may believe we are working in isolation, or that our anti-poverty efforts are futile given the challenges we face.

I encourage you to learn more about the economic human rights framework as a means to fight poverty, and I urge you to consider joining or supporting critical efforts like the Poverty Initiative.  It's heartening to see such widespread, coordinated grassroots activity and the institutional support behind it.