A Minnesota Without Poverty and Minnetonka Lutheran Church collaborated Wednesday to present the opening of “In Search of ENOUGH,” an art exhibit aimed at addressing the concept of “enough” and the problem of poverty in the state of Minnesota.

Over the past several months, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, or AACF, has been busy advocating for policies that provide kids the best chances for positive outcomes in their lives.

RICHMOND, Va. - Tough times call for even tougher measures, and one Virginia organization is working with a national campaign called “Half in Ten” to cut poverty rates in half over ten years.

On May 20 the Economic Opportunity & Poverty Reduction Task Force, a legislatively appointed body, held an introductory meeting for new members where they discussed the “cliff effect,” which occurs when a small increase in income brings sudden financial losses and a net loss for low-income families supported by public benefit programs.

Members of the statewide organizing team for A Minnesota Without Poverty, as well as the board, wrote letters of appreciation and support to Gov. Mark Dayton in support of a balanced and fair approach to addressing the budget deficit and funding basic public services. The letters also expressed a willingness to do one’s own part in order to solve the budget deficit and support for the Legislative Commission to End Poverty’s recommendations to end poverty in Minnesota.

The Virginia Interfaith Center has been working with two film students from Virginia Commonwealth University to create a documentary on the faces of poverty in Virginia. Ben Saunders and Joey Schihl traveled around the commonwealth in the summer of 2010. With their cameras in tow, they lived among, worked with, and interviewed a wide array of people who are directly affected by poverty. The stories they captured illustrate the desperate need to address poverty in the United States and are a powerful reminder of the wide disparities in life experience among us all.

Call it by any name you like — “income disparity” or “economic inequality” or “widening gap” or “wealth divide” — the point is the same: The rich are indeed getting richer and the poor are indeed getting poorer. The top 1 percent of us on the income ladder are benefiting from a growing and unprecedented share of income and wealth, while also enjoying historically low federal and state tax rates despite chronic budget shortfalls.

Downsizing poverty will be good for business

The Colorado Half in Ten Campaign participated in a Northeast Denver Neighborhood Summit to educate individuals about Half in Ten’s policy priorities and to collect support. In particular, Colorado Half in Ten discussed our goal to protect low-income programs, such as Medicaid and TANF.

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy hosted their annual advocacy day, the “Day for All People,” on January 18. Three hundred advocates from across the commonwealth of Virginia gathered at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond to kick off the event with a morning address by Half in Ten supporter, Virginia State Sen. Donald McEachin, and at least half of those in attendance signed on to the pledge.