The West Coast Poverty Center, a multidisciplinary partnership supported by the University of Washington School of Social Work, was recently named a partner in the newly formed Collaborative of U.S. Poverty Centers.
The group’s goal is to establish a sustainable, national infrastructure to exchange applied poverty-policy research ideas and findings among top scholars, policymakers and practitioners. It will provide research, training and outreach focused on increasing the effectiveness of public policies to reduce poverty and inequality and their consequences.
“We are pleased that the University of Washington will be part of this new national collaborative focused on creating and applying new knowledge,” said Jennifer Romich, director, West Coast Poverty Center. “We are honored to support and share the work of anti-poverty scholars, practitioners and policymakers in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.”
Headed by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the collaborative’s additional partners include the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, the Center on Race and Wealth at Howard University, and the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research.
Founded in 2005, the West Coast Poverty Center, a partnership with the School of Social Work, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences, facilitates nationally significant, locally relevant social policy research related to poverty and inequality.
The center mentors and supports the next generation of poverty scholars and practitioners through its ongoing research seminar and by brokering awards and research opportunities for faculty and students. Beyond the university, the center works to bring poverty-relevant knowledge to policymakers and practitioners and to engage researchers and practitioners in dialogue through outreach, communications and events.