Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan aims to find and test innovative solutions for the prevention and alleviation of poverty. Poverty Solutions seeks to leverage the intellectual assets and academic scope of the university to make a major impact on the lives of millions of Americans. Key factors that make this initiative unique among university-led poverty efforts include:

• Action-based research focused on partnerships, pilots, and even large-scale interventions and programs that determine what is most effective and bring new discoveries to policymakers and community stakeholders.
• A real-world agenda centered on boosting economic opportunity, expanding educational attainment, and improving health.
• A highly interdisciplinary approach that has already engaged agencies and nonprofits across the region with scholars from U-M’s schools of business, law, information, public health, social work, public policy, medicine, urban planning, engineering, literature, science and the arts, and the Institute for Social Research.
• Mutually respectful, dynamic, solution-focused partnerships with community organizations, government entities, practitioners, and policymakers at every level. Such partnerships build creative solutions and also invest in capacity in the community, enhancing success, and creating resiliency.