UNC CENTER ON POVERTY,
WORK AND OPPORTUNITY
ANNUAL REPORT 2011-2012
Individuals from the New Beginning men’s shelter in Elizabeth City, NC speaking to tour participants on
January 19, 2012 during the Northeastern leg of the Poverty Tour.
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
We have many challenges in North Carolina. Many and daunting. But none approaches
the tragedy that here, in the wealthiest nation on earth, the wealthiest nation in human
history, nearly one in five of our sisters and brothers lives in wrenching poverty. Poverty
amidst plenty. 25% of our innocent children.
WHAT’S INSIDE...
Quick Facts on Poverty in NC
page 2
Almost 40% of our children of color live in poverty. A simple declarative sentence that
shames us as a people. One that gives the lie to both our foundational constitutional
commitments and our central tenets of religious faith, in a single blow. To anyone paying attention, the scourge of debilitating poverty is the largest problem faced by the
people of North Carolina – even if our political leaders ignore it, or declare that it
doesn’t exist.
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Ignoring the untold tens of thousands of homeless citizens – often veterans, often employed, often with children – living under our bridges, in our forests, in our storm
drains, across every corner of this asset-rich state.
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Ignoring the millions turning to over-pressed food banks – even when that means,
sometimes freezing, always humiliating, overnight queues -- to secure canned goods for
their children.
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Partners
Center News
page 3
Students at the Center
page 3
Events at the Center
page 4-5
Advisory Board
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Ignoring school kids who can’t get access to decent meals, much less quality teachers, or
safe classrooms, or the internet – but who we say enjoy a steely equality with the welltutored and heavily-financed children of Chapel Hill and Myers Park.
Ignoring the vast legions of fathers and mothers who, through no fault of their own,
have been cast into a crushing unemployment that denies them the essential dignity of
supporting and sustaining their families. In what Robert Kennedy called a violence of
“inaction, indifference and decay” – causing “the slow destruction of a child” and the
ruthless “breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and
as a man amongst other men.” And this, too, Kennedy explained, “afflicts us all.”
If we believe we are incapable of addressing these profound evils, we have lost the ambition and the confidence that marked our forebears. If we believe we could address
them, but choose not to, our moral failing is complete.
Gene Nichol, Director & Boyd Tinsley
Distinguished Professor of Law
QUICK FACTS on POVERTY in NC
According to the most recent data
available, 17.5 percent of North
Carolinians, or more than 1.6 million individuals in North Carolina,
are in poverty. Poverty has increased in North Carolina in recent
years, over the course of the Great
Recession, from 14.3 percent in
2007 and 16.3 percent in 2009.
percent of African Americans in
North Carolina live in poverty,
31.2 percent of Native Americans
and 33.9 percent of Latinos.
Further, North Carolina continues
to record unemployment numbers
which are among the highest in the
country, averaging 10.5 percent in
2011 and 9.6 percent as of July
Despite the impact of the Great 2012.
Recession on North Carolina and
its residents, for some, poverty has For children in North Carolina, the
been a persistent struggle for many poverty rates are even higher. 24.9
decades. According to a study re- percent of children or greater than
leased by the NC Justice Center in 559,000 children in North Carolina
January 2012, 10 counties in North are in poverty. 40.2 percent of
Carolina are persistently poor, African American children live in
meaning 20% or more of the poverty, an increase of 3.6 percent
county’s population lived in pov- since 2009. Similarly, 42.6 percent
erty from 1970 to 2000. All of the of Hispanic children live in povcounties - Bertie, Bladen, Colum- erty.
bus, Halifax, Martin, Northampton, Pitt, Robeson, Tyrell and The goal of our work is to generate
Washington - are located in the awareness of how poverty impacts
Eastern part of the state.
our state and certain groups disparately, and to illuminate the reaWhen race is considered, the statis- sons and possible solutions for
tics are even more alarming. 27.7 ending poverty.
Mary Judd of Hallelujah
Soup Kitchen in Raleigh
speaking with Poverty
Tour participants about
the needs of the homeless
and hungry in Raleigh on
July 20, 2012 during the
Triangle tour.
FOLLOW the Center
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us online!
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UNCPovertyCenter
@UNCPovertyCtr
blogs.law.unc.edu/poverty
PARTNERS
The Center would like to thank the many
organizations who have joined us on projects,
programming, research, events, and long-term
partnerships. We look forward to working with
you in the coming year.

AARP of NC

Community Empowerment Fund

Institute for Civic Engagement and Social
Change at NC Central University

NC Justice Center

NC NAACP

UNC School of Law Pro Bono Program

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
Community members
participating in the
Southeastern leg of the
Poverty Tour on
March 2, 2012.
Center NEWS
In August, Heather Hunt stepped down from her role as Assistant Director to focus on her final year of graduate school at
UNC’s Department of City and Regional Planning. Heather will
continue to stay involved in the Center’s work in the coming
months, particularly in the area of mortgage foreclosure and
other consumer finance issues.
The Center has hired a postdoctoral research associate who will
begin work in January 2013. The fellow will work on the Center’s continued research, partnership, and community engagement activities in North Carolina and the South.
The Center recently moved to a new location in Meadowmont
in Chapel Hill along with other UNC Law departments.
STUDENTS at the Center
The Poverty Center works with undergraduate, graduate, and law students each
year who are interested in poverty issues.
This year, many law students had the
opportunity to participate in various legs
of the Poverty Tour, an experience vastly
different than the typical law classroom
but an important exercise for soon-to-be
lawyers interested in poverty issues. Reflecting on his experience on the Poverty
Tour, Jeff Lakin ‘12 said “[h]earing stories like this, alarmingly similar from
community to community, made it clear
that the poverty experienced in rural
North Carolina was not merely a spot of
bad luck, brought on by a bad economy
and changing times, but something much
deeper, the result of choices consciously
made by policymakers who knew the
path of least resistance on difficult issues
was not to share the burden, but to place
it where the people were seen as least
able to speak up or fight back.”
This summer, eight students joined the
center as summer interns to undertake a
range of research projects. Research
topics included homelessness in Eastern
Students participating in the Poverty
Tour in Northeastern North Carolina.
North Carolina, economic development
in a small rural town, collateral consequences of the criminal justice system
and the connection to poverty, unfair rate
-setting practices by utility companies,
federal regulation of prepaid cards, and
other topics of interest which came out
of the Poverty Tour. Thank you to our
dedicated summer student interns who
produced very thoughtful work:
 Galo Centenera, UNC School of
Law
 Capricia Davis, N.C. Central
University
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Andrew Hennessy-Strahs, UNC
School of Law
Amy Mills, Tulane University
Natalya Rice, UNC School of Law
Michael Shapiro, UNC School of
Law
Marcie Smith, UNC School of Law
Justice Warren, UNC School of Law
EVENTS at the Center
ACORN AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: A
TALK WITH JOHN ATLAS
John Atlas, the author of Seeds of Change: The Story of
ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group, joined us on September 28, 2011 for
an evening discussion of his book, which looks at the history
of ACORN and the role of the organization in grass roots
community organizing over the past 40 years. The UNC Center for Urban and Regional Studies co-sponsored the event.
providing civil legal services and public defenders) and nonprofit impact advocacy organizations, as well as a long-term
look at the future of access to justice in our state.
THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IN NC AND THE FEDERAL
COURTS
As constitutional challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act mounted after it’s passage in late 2010, UNC
law students heard different perspectives in a panel discussion
on the Act moderated by Center Director Gene Nichol. Pam
Silberman, president and CEO of the NC Institute of Medicine, discussed the Act’s impact on the state, particularly on
poorer residents. William Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr.
Distinguished Professor of Law at UNC School of Law, examined the constitutional challenges to the Act.
PRACTICING POVERTY LAW IN NORTH
CAROLINA: 3 MILLION CLIENTS AND
GROWING
On November 22, 2011, the UNC Center on Poverty, Work
and Opportunity co-sponsored “Practicing Poverty Law in
North Carolina: 3 million clients….and growing!,” an afternoon conference for students and practitioners about the practice of poverty law, particularly given the recession and changing needs of clients. Co-sponsors included the Consumer and
Commercial Law Society and the UNC Law Career Services
Office. Martin Brinkley, then-president of the North Carolina
Bar Association, delivered a keynote address. Three separate
panel discussions throughout the afternoon tackled challenging
topics for practitioners from the perspective of traditional providers of legal services for the poor (LSC-funded organizations
Director Gene Nichol speaking with the press during the Poverty Tour, alongside Tour
partners Melinda Lawrence , Executive Director or the NC Justice Center and Rev. Dr.
William J. Barber II, President of the NC NAACP. Photo credit: NC Justice Center.
POVERTY TOUR
Since late 2011, the Center has been working together with the
NC NAACP, the NC Justice Center, the Institute for Civic
Engagement and Social Change at North Carolina Central University, and the AARP of NC to examine poverty by traveling
across the state and speaking with North Carolinians about
their experiences living in poverty. The goal was to hear from
those who struggle with poverty every day in order to shine a
light on the truth of poverty in North Carolina. The Truth and
Hope Poverty Tour took four separate trips:

January 19 & 20: Northeast Tour - Washington, Roper,
Elizabeth City, Winton, Scotland Neck, Rocky Mount
“Almost 40% of our children of color live in poverty. This simple declarative
sentence shames us as a people.” - Gene Nichol


March 2 & 3: Southeast Tour - Greenville, Goldsboro,
Faison, Dudley, Wilmington, Supply, Navassa, Red Springs,
Fayetteville
April 30 & May 1: Western Tour - Greensboro, Wentworth, Mt. Airy, Salisbury, East Spencer, Hickory, Hendersonville, Charlotte
July 20: Triangle Tour - Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill
Rocky Mount. The Summit brought together residents of many
of the communities visited as well as faith, political, and business leaders, social organizations, media and others interested in
understanding the story of poverty in our state and creating a
plan for change.
During the Summit, attendees screened the Poverty Tour documentary, “Truth and Hope: The Challenge to Address Poverty
in Our Communities” produced by Cash Michaels. Attendees
In all, the tour traveled 2,000 miles and met with thousands of
people in 27 different communities. Common themes included heard from Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President of the NC
NAACP, and Gene Nichol, Center Director as well as fellow
homelessness (and more specifically, the prevalence of homecommunity members who shared their stories of poverty during
less veterans), inability to pay for basic needs including food
the Tour. In small groups, attendees discussed their ideas for
and utilities, persistent unemployment and job loss, lack of acraising awareness of poverty, bringing poverty to the forefront
cess to basic services like water and sewer, lack of health care
and insurance, and difficulty accessing benefits. Representatives of public discourse in our legislature, and reducing overall povfrom social service organizations frequently told stories of their erty statewide.
efforts to provide support to those in poverty on trim budgets
which often meant turning many very needy individuals away.

POVERTY SUMMIT
Following the tour, the “Truth and Hope Poverty Tour Summit: Putting a Face on Poverty” was hosted on August 11 in
DIRECTOR speaking out
Each year, Center Director Gene Nichol
has the opportunity to speak at many
national, state, and local conferences and
events on topics ranging from higher
education to access to civil legal represen- 
tation to poverty generally.
Here are just a few of this year’s speaking
engagements:

 Action for a Better Community Annual Conference, keynote address,
“The Challenge of Economic Justice,” Rochester, NY, October 2011.
 National Coalition for a Right to 
Civil Counsel, keynote address,
“Equal Justice and the Right to
Counsel,” Washington, DC, Decem- 
ber 2011.
Interview with William Friday,
“Facing North Carolina Poverty,”
North Carolina People, UNC-TV, 
April 2012.
Poverty and Community Action:
Statewide Poverty Conference, keynote address, “The Flesh and Blood
of Poverty,” San Bernardino, CA,
May 2012.
State Equal Access to Justice Con-
ference, keynote address, “Justice for
All,” Kansas City, MO, June 2012.
American Constitution Society Annual Convention, plenary session,
“Race and the Roberts Court,”
Washington, DC, June 2012.
Community Action Partnership National Convention, keynote address,
“The Moral Challenge of American
Poverty,” New York, NY, August
2012.
323 W. Barbee Chapel Road
Campus Box #3382
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3382
ww.law.unc.edu/centers/poverty
poverty_center@unc.edu
UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity
Mission Statement
The UNC Center for Poverty, Work and
Opportunity is a non-partisan, interdisciplinary institute designed to study, examine,
document and advocate for proposals,
policies and services to mitigate poverty in
North Carolina and the nation.
The Center has four goals:
1. To address the pressing needs of those
currently living at or below the poverty
level in North Carolina
2. To provide an interdisciplinary forum to
examine innovative and practical ideas
to move more men, women and children
out of poverty
3. To raise public awareness of issues
related to work and poverty
4. To train a new generation to combat the
causes and effects of poverty and to
improve the circumstances of working
people
UNC Center on Poverty, Work
and Opportunity
323 W. Barbee Chapel Road
Campus Box #3382
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3382
www.law.unc.edu/centers/poverty
poverty_center@unc.edu
Advisory Board 2011-2012
Professor Alice Ammerman, UNC School of Public Health and Director, Center for
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Professor Oscar Barbarin, UNC School of Social Work and Senior Investigator, Frank
Porter Graham Child Development Center
Dr. Lynn Blanchard, Director, Carolina Center for Public Service
Dean Jack Boger, UNC School of Law
Professor Mimi Chapman, UNC School of Social Work
The late William C. “Bill” Friday, President Emeritus, University of North Carolina
Professor Michal Grinstein-Weiss, UNC School of Social Work
Professor Kathie Mullan Harris, UNC Department of Sociology
Professor Jim Johnson, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and Director, Urban
Investment Strategies Center
Professor Arne Kalleberg, UNC Department of Sociology and Senior Associate Dean for
Arts and Sciences
Professor Jim Leloudis, UNC Department of History and Director, Johnston Center for
Undergraduate Excellence
Professor Bill Rohe, UNC Department of City and Regional Planning and director, Center
for Urban and Regional Studies
Dr. Pam Silberman, associate director for Policy Analysis, Cecil G. Sheps Center for
Health Services Research and President, North Carolina Institute of Medicine
Professor Lynne Vernon-Feagans, UNC School of Education
Professor Deborah Weissman, UNC School of Law
Dr. Jesse White, Director, UNC Office of Economic and Business Development