Community Action Partnership - Rooting out Poverty

Rooting Out Poverty:
A Campaign by America's Community Action Network

1st Year of Rooting Out Poverty Campaign
focus of National Press Club Event

Juan Williams ( above right), senior correspondent for National Public Radio and FOX News political contributor, joined with Albert Kelly (left), president of Tri-County Community Action Partnership in Bridgeton, New Jersey and Jim Scheibel (center), executive director of Minnesota Campus Compact to describe first-year achievements and activities of the Partnership's "Rooting Out Poverty" campaign. This media briefing was held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The Partnership released Rooting out Poverty: A Campaign by America's Community Action Network at its 2008 leadership conference in New Orleans.

Juan Williams opened the briefing by sharing his insights and observations on poverty in America, referencing what gains have and have not been made since the assasination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. forty years ago. Albert Kelly described how he used/ continues to use Rooting Out Poverty (ROP) as the basis for creating and framing agendas for a new Inter-faith Coalition and another new coalition of human service providers.

Jim Scheibel gave an impassioned account of how Lake & Prairies Community Action Partnership in Moorhead (MN) effectively used the five action themes of ROP with the agency's strategic planning process and overall program evaluation. Scheibel also described how ROP has helped provide a fuller sense of the Community Action movement among CA staff and board members. "ROP shows staff that they are part of something bigger than themselves," said Scheibel.

More than 100 local Community Action agencies and state associations responded to the Partnership's survey of 1st year ROP activities. Respondents said that they used ROP to help educate policymakers, the general public and the media about poverty in their respecitve communities. ROP also is used in staff and board training and in setting up town hall meetings, statewide summits on poverty, and long-range action plans. More than 70% of the respondents said that they will continue to use ROP through 2009. ROP was supported, in part, by a grant from the Ford Foundation.

Released on January 9, 2008, at the 2008 Winter Management & Leadership Training Conference in New Orleans, the report, Rooting Out Poverty: A Campaign by America's Community Action Network, is now available as a PDF.

The Community Action Partnership developed Rooting Out Poverty with input from several hundred key leaders from the local, state, and national levels. It offers solutions and strategies for promoting quality child care; employment and training opportunities, especially for those lacking basic skills; responsible health, energy, and conservation policies, assistance to those elderly and otherwise most vulnerable of people, and more.

Rooting Out Poverty was designed to educate and inform every American that the country's poverty epidemic is intolerable -- and correctable. It can also help reframe and refocus work, encourage collaborations, spark community discussions, and stimulate new ideas.

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