Institute for Research on Poverty wins research center award

The Institute for Research on Poverty at UW–Madison has won designation as one of three Area Poverty Research Centers nationally by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The designation is accompanied by a grant of $500,000 annually for three years that helps support the institute’s research mission.

The award will also support research expected to shed light on three contemporary social policy issues:

• the changing family structure in the United States and its public policy implications;
• challenges confronting poor families trying to become self-sufficient and the ways government and the private sector can help;
• and reorganization of social policy practice in the United States in the wake of changes in policy goals, governance and funding in the 1990s.

“We look forward to continuing our long tradition of research aimed at improving our understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty, and the most effective efforts to improve the well-being of poor families,” says Maria Cancian, professor of social work and public affairs and the institute’s director.

The $500,000 annual award – the maximum funding available in the competition – renews an award made in 2002, when the Area Poverty Research Center program was established. In the institute’s capacity as an Area Poverty Research Center, its efforts incorporate a regional focus on the upper Midwest.

The award, along with university funding, will maintain many longstanding research, training and outreach initiatives as well as supporting new projects.