Conferences

Old Assumptions, New Realities: Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century

A West Coast Poverty Center Conference, presented September 10-12, 2008

West Coast Poverty Center Conference Generates New Proposals on Economic Security for Working Families

With a rapidly changing global economy and an economic crisis in the headlines, researchers, policymakers and citizens have been asking how best to help American workers build and maintain economic security for themselves and their families.

In September, the West Coast Poverty Center (WCPC) and the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy (NBEC) brought leading national policy scholars and prominent policy practitioners to the University of Washington to consider this question and to generate new policies that will promote economic security for today’s working families.

The conference, entitled Old Assumptions, New Realities: Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century, was based on the recognition that the bulk of our current social, health, and employment benefit policy structures, created 70 years ago through the Social Security Act (SSA), no longer respond to today’s challenges and realities. The original provisions of the SSA did little to protect working-age adults and their children. Over the years, federal, state and local governments have addressed this and other gaps in the initial SSA provisions by developing a large and largely uncoordinated array of programs targeted to specific populations and needs - from health and nutritional assistance for low-income pregnant women to public and publicly subsidized housing, means-tested child care subsidies, public preschool services, specialized social and mental health services, employment preparation and vocational training programs, and many more. Read More

WCPC Inaugural Conference - "Local Contexts and the Prospects for the Second Generation"
October 19-20, 2006

Public Keynote Address by Alejandro Portes
Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Thursday, October 19, 5:30 p.m.
Walker-Ames Room, Kane Hall

Conference poster [ PDF ]