Center on Poverty, Work, & Opportunity
Topic: American Dream: Myth or Reality?
An Overview of Poverty in America
Components
 PowerPoint
 Terms & Concepts
 Documents and Readings
 Suggested Resources
o Websites (Interactive/Links)
o Video Clips
o Books & Films
Terms & Concepts
Absolute measurement
American Dream
Blue Collar Job
Classism
Culture of poverty
Department of Health & Human Services
Economic inequality
Education equality
Financial literacy
Food insecurity
Homelessness
Invisible Poor
Living wage
Materialism
Minimum wage
Paycheck to paycheck
Poverty
Poverty Guidelines
Recession
Service Based Economy
Stereotypes
Two Americas
Underemployment
Unemployment
White Collar Job
Documents/Readings:
 11 Facts about Education and Poverty in America:
http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-education-and-povertyamerica
 The State of Poverty in America (The American Prospect):
http://prospect.org/article/state-poverty-america
 Poverty in America: Why Can’t We End It? (NY Times Opinion):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-povertyin-america.html?pagewanted=all
 Poverty in the 50 Years Since ‘The Other America’ in five charts (Washington Post):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/11/poverty-inthe-50-years-since-the-other-america-in-five-charts/
 Poverty in America: Defining the New Poor (NPR):
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/22/151166529/poverty-in-america-defining-the-newpoor
 Center for Poverty, Work, & Opportunity (various publications):
http://www.law.unc.edu/centers/poverty/publications/default.aspx
Websites/Links
 Bread for the World (Bread.org:
http://www.bread.org/hunger/us/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=onlinead
&utm_campaign=search&utm_term=us-poverty&utm_content=text&gclid=CN2T8qcxbECFQGFnQodhlcAuQ
 Poverty & The United States Census (US Government):
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/
 National Poverty Center (University of Michigan):
http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/
 AmericanPoverty.Org: http://americanpoverty.org/
 Cause: Homeless and Poverty (Dosomething.org):
http://www.dosomething.org/cause/homelessness-and-poverty
 Special Report: The Changing Face of Poverty in America (CNNMoney):
http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/poverty/
 Poverty in America: One Nation, Pulling Apart (Penn State):
http://povertyinamerica.mit.edu/
 Oxfam America - Working together to end poverty and injustice (Oxfam):
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
 PlaySpent (Urban Ministries of Durham): http://www.playspent.org
Video Clips
 49 Million Americans in Poverty, Census Calculates (PBS):
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec11/poverty_11-07.html
 Causes of Record Poverty in America (CNN, American Morning):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VneUcKavu_U
 1 in 15 Americans Among the Poorest of the Poor (PBSNewsHour):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abZKnDVUEtY
 CNN Dialogues – Today’s Other America: Living in Poverty (CNN; Emory
University) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCdk7MLN8No
 Hunger and Poverty in America (60 Minutes):
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358670n
 Remaking America – From Poverty to Prosperity (PBS):
http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=pktOXJr1vOQ&feature=mv_sr
 Truth and Hope Poverty Tour (UNC Center for Poverty, Work, & Opportunity):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yam5D8aODE
 Anna Deavere Smith: “4 American Characters”:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/anna_deavere_smith_s_american_character.ht
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 Richard Wilkinson: “How Economic Inequality Harms Societies”:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/richard_wilkinson.html
Suggested/Selected Resources: Books & Films
 The Working Poor: Invisible in America (David Shipler)
 Poverty in America: A Handbook (John Iceland)
 So Rich, So Poor: Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America (Peter B. Edelman)
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A People’s History of Poverty in America (Stephen Pimpare)
A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Ruby K. Payne)
One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All (Mark Rank)
Nickel and Dimed: On NOT Getting By in America (Barbara Ehrenreich)
The End of Poverty (film)