Support the Poverty Initiative Today

Dear friends and family,

As our country awakens to the realities of growing economic inequality, we are reminded of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s call for “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.” After 8 years of work dedicated to raising up generations of religious and community leaders, the Poverty Initiative seeks to make sure that these moments of awakening catalyze a sustained, broad-based movement to end poverty. 

Thank you for supporting the coming together of small streams of study and struggle into a deep, wide river that flows toward justice. Together we are engaging a new generation of social change makers and grassroots Poverty Scholars to craft the building blocks of such a movement. 

Whether in the pulpit, on the streets of New York, in a Union classroom, on Facebook, or in community meetings and mobilizations on the border, in Philly, Vermont, and around the country, the Poverty Initiative links arms with leaders of every race, age and religion to call out the immorality of poverty in a land of abundance.

What We’ve Accomplished in 2011

As Union celebrates its 175th year, the Poverty Initiative continues to advance the seminary’s social justice legacy on campus and beyond by deepening and expanding our training and leadership development efforts, reaching unprecedented audiences and developing powerful new sources for our movement. In 2011, we have:

• Released our latest book, Pedagogy of the Poor: Building the Movement to End Poverty— published by Teacher’s College Press and coauthored by Poverty Scholars Program Coordinator and Union Scholar-in-Residence Willie Baptist and Union professor Jan Rehmann.  The book has sold over 1,000 copies and been presented to over 1,000 people at book events in NC, NY, MD and PA.

• Convened a Regional Leadership School of the Poverty Scholars Program on statewide organizing strategies. This School accelerated our exciting work with a Statewide Collaboration Project which brings together a powerful group of Poverty Scholars from Media Mobilizing Project, United Workers, National Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Initiative, Northeast PA Organizing Center and Vermont Workers Center.

•  Engaged over 100,000 readers on pressing issues of poverty via the Poverty Initiative’s social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog, Flickr and website).

•  Launched the Poverty Initiative Fellows Program, which graduated its inaugural class of 11 in May and welcomed a new class of 11 masters-level Fellows this fall. Past Fellows have been successfully placed in churches, non-profits and graduate programs around the country. 

• Poverty Scholars from West Virginia and Maryland were featured in the PBS documentary series “The Poverty Tour” with Tavis Smiley and soon-to-be Union professor Dr. Cornel West, which was filmed and produced by Poverty Scholars from Media Mobilizing Project. 

• Served as a resource for strategic planning, bible study curriculum, preaching and community engagement for congregations and national religious organizations such as the Community Organizing Residency Program, Interfaith Organizing Initiative and Union’s White House Interfaith Initiative.

• Recognized by a growing number of institutional funders for our important work. The Poverty Initiative received its first multi-year grant from the Ford Foundation, as well as critical support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, US Human Rights Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, as well as denominational support from Presbyterian Hunger Program, United Christ of Christ’s Neighbors in Need Program, the American Baptist Church, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Disciples of Christ’s Week of Compassion and gifts from several local congregations.

What We Dream 2012 May Bring with Your Support!

In the coming year, we will continue to develop our movement building blocks. Our staff, Fellows and Poverty Scholars will: 

• Participate in a January immersion course that will travel from NYC to Baltimore, Maryland and Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia to study religion and the leaders of the Abolition Movement—John Brown, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas—together with Poverty Scholars of MD’s United Workers.

• Convene 3 high-level Poverty Scholars Intensives at Union with a small cohort of organizers for focused study and exchange in support of ongoing organizing and leadership development efforts.

• Gather for a Pedagogy of the Poor Book Launch and Sustainer Celebration and national book tour.

• Celebrate and commission our second cohort of Poverty Initiative Fellows in May 2012.

• Continue to grow our Statewide Collaboration to develop models of movement building.

In the coming year, we will rely on our friends and family in the movement for justice for contributions large and small to help sustain our efforts and carefully build on recent grants from our institutional supporters. Gifts from loyal supporters like you provide the financial foundation (over 50% of our annual budget!) of our work year round. Please consider joining our core Poverty Initiative supporters by making a tax-deductible gift today. Checks can be made payable to “Union Theological Seminary—Poverty Initiative” and mailed using the enclosed envelop. Secure online donations can be made at www.povertyinitiative.org/donate. 

We wish you a blessed holiday season and healthy and happy New Year!

The Poverty Initiative 

PS – Please make your gift of $1,000, $500, $100, $75, or $25 today –or become a monthly Movement Sustainer—to support our work in 2012. THANK YOU!