Effective poverty reduction programs require careful measurement of poverty status. Commonly used consumption or income-based classifications of poverty aggregate together households that are persistently poor with those who are only in poverty due to passing conditions. They also classify as non-poor households that are at risk of falling into…

The main objective of this project is to demonstrate how a community action agency can operate manpower and economic development programs with continuing impact. The program offers: (1) training in four areas, (2) supportive services, including counseling and basic education, (3) youth programs, (4) economic development efforts to help the local…

Directed at the chronically unemployed, poor single parents, and welfare recipients, microenterprise programs provide access to loans and technical training for the express purpose of creating small-scale self-sufficient entrepreneurs no longer dependent on public support. Lessons from international microenterprise programs, federal funding…

Approximately 200 books and articles published through 1966 are listed in this annotated bibliography on rural poverty. The entries are grouped by subject areas as follows: general information on poverty, general background material (demographic aspects of poverty, education and youth, communications and adoption practices, social structure and…

In 1986, of 32 million Americans who were poor, nearly ten million, or 30%, lived in nonmetropolitan or rural areas containing only 22% of the nation's population. While metropolitan poverty rates have declined somewhat since 1983 as a result of economic recovery, nonmetropolitan poverty rates have remained relatively high. Rural poverty is not to…

A 1965 summer training program for 90 VISTA volunteers at Monte Vista, Colorado, is described and evaluated in this report. The program was designed to prepare VISTA trainees to work in poverty areas by providing individual helping services and by planning and organizing community action. The trainees lived and worked in Monte Vista, a small…

The purpose of the conference was to provide an opportunity for researchers, administrators, and persons working in Appalachia to inquire of one another what research has been and is being done relating to poverty and development in the region, and to recommend means for enhancing the prevailing effort. The importance of interinstitutional and…

Explores the economic and demographic factors fueling rural homelessness, based on field research in scattered rural communities. Data were collected by interviewing low-income families and local service providers and from community agency and school records. Suggests strategies for preventing and responding to homelessness that would be…

Describes a college-level class that studies the geography of poverty in Illinois and uses these findings as a basis for classroom discussions and exercises concerning poverty. Empirical evidence suggest that poverty levels are higher in rural areas rather than in urban areas. Discusses possible reasons and implications. (MJP)