- May 10, 13 | The Nation This Week in Poverty: Twelve Things You Can Do To FIght Poverty Now Even as the economy recovers, too many unemployed workers and individuals with low education and skill levels face a difficult job market. Nearly two out of five unemployed workers have been jobless for six months or more; 6.7 million youth are both out of work and out of school.
- May 07, 13 | Philanthropy News Digest Foundation Center Connections - Taking Aim at Gun Violence Because gun violence disproportionately affects African-American men and boys, particularly those who live in high-poverty communities, efforts to end it must also address issues of race, place, and poverty, a report from CLASP finds. According to Taking Aim at Gun Violence (11 pages, PDF), 53,850 African-American males were killed by firearms between 2000 and 2010, while rates of gun violence among young African-American men were highest where dropout, unemployment, and poverty rates are also high.
- May 06, 13 | Post-Gazette Critics Decry Pennsylvania's Revived Asset Test on Food Stamps Such tests can be harmful due to the volume of paperwork and caseworkers' time they can tie up, but also because they discourage savings, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, an expert on policies that impact low-income people at CLASP. "It sends the wrong signal," she said. "It encourages people to spend down rather than put money in the bank and save it against future needs."
- Apr 23, 13 Leading Anti-Poverty Center Announces New Executive Director Today, CLASP (the Center for Law and Social Policy) announced the appointment of Olivia Golden, Ph.D. as its next executive director. She will succeed Alan Houseman, who has served in the position since 1981. Houseman will retire at the end of 2013.
- Sep 25, 12 CLASP Explores New Approaches in Federal Policy to Help Low-Income Students Complete College Two unfortunate phenomena have been converging to make college even more elusive for low-income students: the affordability of postsecondary education is waning at the same time that low-income students in this slowly recovering economy must juggle school, family and work to earn credentials of value in an increasingly competitive job market. Against this backdrop, CLASP has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to participate in the Reimagining Aid Delivery and Design (RADD) project with 13 other organizations.
- Sep 17, 12 CLASP Statement on OMB Sequestration Report The automatic, across-the-board cuts set to begin on January 2, 2013, by the sequester were intended to be a blunt and indiscriminate instrument that would inspire both parties to negotiate a compromise on a deficit reduction plan. At CLASP, we work tirelessly to create policy solutions that work for low-income people. Clearly, the sequester is anything but that."
- Sep 12, 12 Growing Income Inequality, Continued High Poverty Point to Need for Sustained Support for Workers, Families Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released annual data on poverty, income and health insurance coverage in America. This report is a clear sign that there's tremendous need for government action to promote job growth, modernize jobs, help poor children get off to a solid start, and strengthen the safety net for families in hard times.
CLASP's policy experts present at a wide variety of events, conferences, seminars and forums throughout the country. Following are upcoming CLASP staff presentations: