Emerging Focus Areas

Poverty is complex. That’s why—in addition to our established focus areas—we leave room for studying emerging issues, building evidence to better understand how they contribute to the puzzle of poverty and how we can address them. 

We look to our partners to help us understand the unique struggles and needs of the unique populations they serve. Take refugees resettled in the U.S., for example. How should the services we offer them acknowledge their special circumstances and differ from our usual interventions? How do refugees fare in comparison to other groups of people? What interventions are moving the needle most to help them create and achieve their American dream?

Or children in foster care. We know they have the worst poverty-related outcomes of any population. Why is this? What works to reunite children in foster care with their birth families? What systems, public or private, work best to serve children, keep them safe, and help them thrive? How do we ensure that youth who age out of foster care are set up for the best possible success as adults?

We build evidence to support a poverty-fighting community that is leading the way in tackling these and other issues. How can we motivate more low-income Americans to engage in the long-term services necessary for escaping poverty? What is the right approach for fighting poverty across two generations, for children and their parents? How do we engage men in services so we can see successful outcomes for fathers and their families? How do we take an intervention that works in Kentucky and ensure it can also work in Minnesota or Florida or New York?

We are working with partners across the United States to find answers to these questions and shed more light on how to reduce poverty through evidence-based programs and policies. Learn with us.