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Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan

Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
Suite 5100
735 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
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Speaker Series

Real-World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions Speaker Series. Fridays at noon | Open to all! In-person talks with coffee & cookies at School of Social Work ECC 1840 or watch online.
Real World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions introduces key issues regarding the causes and consequences of poverty through an in-person lecture series featuring experts in policy and practice from across the nation. Our goal is to help build a broad community of learners to engage in these issues together.

This series is free and open to the public, but is also a one credit course available for U-M students during the Fall 2024 semester. Students can enroll in SWK 503 001 or U-M class 26997 on Canvas.

The events will be hosted Fridays at noon unless otherwise noted, in the School of Social Work ECC 1840 as well as live-streamed on YouTube.

Follow Poverty Solutions on Twitter and on LinkedIn to join the conversation.

Fall 2024 Speaker Series

September 27 - "Inheritance: 11 Years in the Life of One Boy in the Opioid Epidemic"

Amy Toensing and Matt Moyer

Documentary filmmakers

Sep. 27 livestream

Sponsors: University of Michigan School of Social Work, University of Michigan Wallace House Center for Journalists, the University of Michigan Opioid Research Institute, and the University of Michigan Child and Adolescent Data Lab

October 4 - "A Fair Work Week: Raising the Floor on Precarious Scheduling"

Daniel Schneider and Kristen Harknett

Harvard University; University of California San Francisco

Oct. 4 livestream

Sponsor: Population Studies Center

October 11 - "All Means All: Schools Where Everyone is Somebody"

Peter Cookson

Georgetown University

With response from Jennifer Erb-Downward, director of housing stability programs and policy initiatives at Poverty Solutions; and Jonathan Hui, senior program officer at the Kresge Foundation.

Oct. 11 livestream

Sponsor: Education Policy Initiative

October 18 - "Leveraging the Power of Empathy to Build Equitable Health Care Systems"

Margo Brooks Carthon

University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Oct. 18 livestream

Sponsor: University of Michigan School of Nursing

October 25 - "Living on the Edge: How Economic Insecurity Harms Children and Families"

Trina Shanks

University of Michigan

Add Oct. 25 talk to Google calendar

Oct. 25 livestream

Sponsors: University of Michigan School of Social Work and the Center forEquitable Family and Community Well-Being

November 1 - "Empowering Communities to Reduce Violence and Improve Economic Mobility"

Poverty Solutions Panel

Nov. 1 livestream

Learn more about Detroit’s ShotStopper community violence intervention program, which provides city funds to six community-based organizations running violence intervention programs in neighborhoods with high rates of homicide and shootings. Panelists will include: 

  • Todd Bettison, Detroit deputy mayor
  • Mike Peterson, ShotStoppers program administrator
  • Zoe Kennedy, public health and safety director at Force Detroit, which is running one of the violence interventions
  • Amanda Nothaft, director of data and analysis at Poverty Solutions, who is evaluating data on the effectiveness of the ShotStopper program

Moderated by Sam Stragand, senior program manager for the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility

November 8 - "From Surviving to Thriving: The Importance of Engaging People with Lived Expertise"

Barbie Izquierdo

Feeding America

Nov. 8 livestream

Sponsor: University of Michigan Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

Speaker Series 2023
Speaker Series 2022
Speaker Series 2021
Speaker Series 2020
Speaker Series 2019
Speaker Series 2018