In their new book, The Injustice of Place, Poverty Solutions Faculty Director Luke Shaefer and his Princeton colleagues Kathryn Edin and Timothy Nelson turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are rural, and their in-depth exploration of those places offers new insights into common drivers of regional disadvantage. Shaefer and his co-authors presented their findings at the White House and advised members of Congress and leadership in the Executive Branch on place-based approaches to poverty alleviation. The Injustice of Place has also received attention from rural leaders and numerous news outlets, including The Atlantic, TIME, and Rural Matters.

Poverty Solutions and the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to host expert convenings over a five year period to inform the work of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration of Children and Families. Poverty Solutions brought together leading experts in the field to discuss potential changes in evidence standards for employment and training programs and to explore various dimensions of job quality.

Karen Ann Kling, interim managing director and assistant director of policy impact at Poverty Solutions; and William Lopez, a clinical assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Poverty Solutions special advisor; worked with North Central Michigan College’s Child Care Initiative to survey business leaders, parents and prospective parents, and child care providers about child care needs as a workplace issue in northern Michigan’s Emmet County. In October 2023, a follow-up report shared outcomes from a 10-month initiative to provide technical assistance to five local child care providers to see what they needed to grow their businesses and expand access to affordable child care.

Michigan’s 2024 budget included a $5.3 million increase for Homeless Youth and Runaway (HYR) programs. One of the groups pushing for the funding boost, Michigan’s Children, drew from a Poverty Solutions policy brief by Jennifer Erb-Downward, director housing stability programs and policy initiatives; and Amanda Nothaft, director of data and evaluation. The policy brief outlined the health risks facing unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.

Poverty Solutions is supporting the Detroit Financial Well-Being Innovation Challenge, which is fueled by an investment of over $2 million from United Way for Southeastern Michigan in response to Poverty Solutions’ research. From over 30 initial entries, 17 projects aimed at improving the financial well-being of Detroit residents were invited to participate in the Planning Stage. Senior Project Manager Leonymae Aumentado guided 14 student research assistants in supporting the project teams as they fleshed out their ideas. In August 2023, six grantees advanced to the Pilot Stage. John Bulat, data and policy analyst; Amanda Nothaft, director of data and evaluation; Sam Stragand, senior program manager of the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility; and Aumentado worked with grantees to design evaluation plans that assess the outcomes of their pilots and inform plans to scale their pilots further.. In the final stage of the challenge, select pilots will receive up to $1 million to scale their idea city-wide.

The Community Tech Workers program pairs U-M students with small business owners in Detroit for free one-on-one technology training. At this point, 180 businesses have received the tech assistance, with five U-M students involved as tech workers and two as research assistants. Associate Faculty Director Kristin Seefeldt is part of a research team obtaining data from the program to better understand the scope of small business owners’ technology needs and their preferences for delivery of support.

Poverty Solutions partners with Washtenaw County’s Office of Community and Economic Development, Michigan Works! Southeast, and Michigan Rehabilitation Services to run SummerWorks, Washtenaw County’s summer youth employment program. SummerWorks Program Manager Kathleen Clancey facilitated paid internship placements, mentorship matches, professional development for youth, and coaching for employers on how to foster an inclusive workplace for young employees and people with varying abilities.

In 2023, Poverty Solutions engaged with 139 students from 17 of U-M’s 19 schools and colleges. Our action-based research assistant opportunities, academic programs, and events aim to deepen students’ understanding of the root causes of poverty, offer real-world experience, and further ignite their dedication to pursue solutions to the poverty challenges of our time. Engaging students, in turn, brings new insight, knowledge, and opinions to our work and adds vital support and capacity to our research.

Poverty Solutions hosted the Russell Sage Foundation’s Pipeline Capstone Conference at U-M in July 2023. Seventy-one people attended the two-day conference, where Pipeline grantees had the opportunity to share their projects with a diverse group of scholars and expand their networks. Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes was one of the keynote speakers. RSF's Pipeline Grants Competition, co-funded with the Economic Mobility and Opportunity program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to promote diversity in the social sciences, including racial, ethnic, gender, disciplinary, institutional, and geographic diversity. Since 2020, four rounds of the competition have funded 77 early-career scholars from colleges and universities across the United States. Pipeline grantees are paired with mentors who offer advice on their projects and career development.

Poverty Solutions’ researchers and faculty affiliates received 533 media mentions in 2023, including coverage from national outlets like the New York Times, Huff Post, and Marketplace; statewide outlets like the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Michigan Radio, and MLive; and niche publications like Outlier Media, Daily Yonder, and Michigan Chronicle.