Reducing poverty was an important theme in the presidential campaign last year, and public opinion polls show that Americans of all political stripes want more attention paid to the goal of eradicating poverty. More than 37 million Americans—including 13.3 million children—live below the official poverty line. And the current economic downturn and rise in unemployment are projected to cause significant increases in the number of Americans who are poor and in the percentage of children living in deep poverty.

Now more than ever, we need creative and effective policies to enable families and future generations to build a better life and achieve the American dream.

While the Casey Foundation is best known for its work in urban areas, rural poverty also has become a growing area of focus for us. More than one in five rural children are poor, and their families often face particular obstacles like lack of transportation to get to where good jobs are and less access to opportunities and support services.

"In the past 18 months, we have seen a broadening consensus that dealing with poverty is a social and economic imperative, important to our democracy, our competitiveness in a global economy, and our national security," says Ralph Smith, the Casey Foundation's executive vice president.

"The Foundation is pursuing—and supports policies that foster—a two-generation strategy that at one level stabilizes and strengthens the economic condition of an adult generation of workers marginalized by global market forces, and on the second level commits to equipping their children with the knowledge, skills, experiences, values, and opportunities that will prepare them to participate fully in the mainstream economy," says Casey Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Douglas W. Nelson.

"A robust expansion of policies, programs, and strategies we already know to be effective—a truly two-generation approach—could halve the U.S. poverty rate in less than a generation."

The success of this agenda hinges on fostering a broad-based, common sense consensus across political and ideological lines that:

1. promotes workforce participation through increased attention to job creation and skills development;
2. provides supports so that low-income workers can get and keep good jobs and build assets and savings; and
3. surrounds children and youth with the opportunities, resources, and supports as well as the norms, habits, and role models they need to become successful adults.

Some key policies to support these objectives include:

Workforce Participation

• Create a 21st century workforce in the United States and increase the supply of high-quality, family-supporting jobs.
• Expand workforce development partnerships and other innovations that have demonstrated success in training those who lack the skills to succeed in today’s increasingly high-tech workforce, including programs that provide young people with hands-on skills development, college credits, and corporate apprenticeships.
• Ensure that underskilled workers and those displaced by the recent economic turmoil are supported in competing for the millions of new jobs likely to result from new public investments in infrastructure development, food systems, renewable and more efficient energy sources, and health care reform.

Income and Assets

• Use the tax code to help augment the incomes of low-income workers through such measures as expanding and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), tripling it for childless workers who now receive almost nothing, expanding other refundable tax credits, and lowering the income threshold of the Child Tax Credit so that more families can benefit.
• Help families overcome obstacles to keeping good jobs through such measures as guaranteeing child care assistance for low-income working families and expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• Increase and index the federal minimum wage and guarantee all workers a minimum number of paid sick days.
• Provide incentives for families to save for emergencies, education, retraining, retirement, and homeownership and offer financial education to help them make good decisions and protect their earnings and assets.
• Make markets work to provide accessible and affordable goods and financial services and outlaw predatory practices in consumer and mortgage lending.

Support for Children and Youth

• Promote successful parenting by supporting and expanding ongoing demonstrations to encourage and sustain healthy marriages and responsible fatherhood, and explore incentives such as conditional cash transfers, which provide income supplements to low-income families to reward positive parenting approaches that help children succeed.
• Close the achievement gap and improve the opportunity to succeed in school through initiatives that ensure grade-level reading by the end of third grade, focus on chronic absence in the early grades, and have been successful in boosting high school graduation rates and reducing dropout rates.
• Reduce teen pregnancy and high-risk behaviors by expanding proven programs that mobilize communities to help young people and young families cultivate the decision-making skills, habits, and motivation they need to succeed.