News Release

Center’s conference, ‘Challenging the Two Americas,’ to bring
experts together to discuss issues faced by the working poor

CHAPEL HILL – The Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, based in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, will host a conference March 23 and 24 on "Challenging the Two Americas: New Policies to Fight Poverty."

Expert panelists from varied backgrounds will join former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, the center’s director, to discuss policies that local and national policy-makers could put in place to alleviate the plight of the working poor.

"No matter what your political views are, we can surely all agree that we must address the fact that so many people are living in poverty in this, the wealthiest country in the world," Edwards said.

"This conference, with its fantastic group of experts from all over the nation, is in response to what we at the Center on Poverty believe is a moral duty to tackle the issues that have created the shameful existence of the two Americas that exists today."

The conference, to be held at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center, is open to the public. The program fee of $40 covers lunch and snacks on both days and all conference materials. Students can attend the conference at no cost; however, they must register in advance and will be charged $15 for each lunch attended. Those who wish to register for the conference should call (919) 843-8796 no later than Tuesday (March 21).

Seven panel discussions featuring more than 30 experts will take place during the conference on topics including, but not limited to, the economic impact of globalization; gender, work and economic opportunity; community building; and federal housing programs.

The panelists will include:

• Dr. Jacob Hacker, Peter Strauss family associate professor of political science at Yale University. He is the author of "The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States."
• Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School. Warren is the co-author of "All Your Worth: the Lifetime Money Plan," published in 2005 and with co-author Amelia Warren Tyagi. She is the author of more than 140 books, articles, studies, reports and presentations.
• Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and chief executive officer of PolicyLink, a national research and action organization that works in partnership with others organizations to advance policies to achieve economic and social equity. She is the co-author of "Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: New Dimensions on Race in America."
• Martin Eakes, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Center for Community Self-Help. The nonprofit center and its financing affiliates, Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Ventures Fund, make up one of the nation’s leading community development financial institutions. Self-Help operates from regional offices in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
• Dr. Ron Haskins, senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Economic Studies Program and senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. In 2005, he received the President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Human Services from the American Public Human Services Association.

A complete listing of the panelists participating in the conference, as well as more information about the center and the "Challenging the Two Americas" conference, can be found at www.law.unc.edu/povertycenter.

Following the conference, the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity is planning to form working groups and is discussing the possibility of future publications to continue its mission to address the issues of the working poor. These efforts will pull together the expertise of the conference panelists, as well as other experts from the various events hosted by the center since its inception in February 2005.

Center staff members hope these activities will foster further consideration by policy-makers at all levels of government to address the problems faced by the working poor of America.

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School of Law contact: Matt Marvin, (919) 962-4125 or mmarvin@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu