Understanding poverty today

Hour 1

For the poorest Americans, these are the worst times since the Great Depression. On the heels of the 2008 recession, lingering unemployment, foreclosures and now a new wave of cuts to last-resort government aid programs, how are our poorest fellow citizens surviving? And what is being done to help or hinder their survival? For this hour of Radio Times, we’ve invited three experts to help us understand poverty in the U.S., Pennsylvania and Philadelphia today. CHERYL POPE, PhD.,  is deputy vice president of health and human services for the Asociación de Puertorriqueños en Marcha, a North Philadelphia-based social services agency. KATHY FISHER is the family economic security director for Public Citizens for Children and Youth, a Pennsylvania nonprofit advocacy group. And GREG KAUFMANN writes a weekly blog for The Nation magazine’s website called “This Week in Poverty,” tracking poverty and its implications on public policy and private lives around the country.

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[audio: 050412_100630.mp3]