Tavis Smiley and RESULTS Host Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Ending Poverty


April 22, 2014

Ending Poverty: America’s Silent Spaces

WHAT: In light of the escalating number of Americans living in poverty, and as a continuation of Tavis Smiley’s leading efforts on this issue, the Tavis Smiley Foundation’s new four-year initiative, Ending Poverty: America’s Silent Spaces, is partnering with the national anti-poverty organization RESULTS, to discuss the state of poverty as the country moves towards mid-term elections, and what actions the public can take to help address poverty including influencing public policy in local communities through their vote.      

WHO:  

WHEN: 

April 29, 20148 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT. This event was an audio conference call and the call recording is online at: https://results.org/wp-content/uploads/30892577.mp3

 

WHY: 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 46 million Americans are under the poverty line.  That's more than 15 percent of all Americans.  More than 15 percent of Americans are struggling in poverty and increasingly many of those affected by poverty are the so-called “working poor.”  African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected, but millions of white Americans are also struggling to survive in the “new normal” that sees economic opportunity distributed exclusively to the top one percent.   Last year, the top one percent earned nearly 20 percent of all household income, while the top 10 percent earned more than 48 percent of all household income.  This growing disparity is crippling the country. With this Virtual Town Hall meeting, the Tavis Smiley Foundation and RESULTS seek to mobilize people to take action in their communities.

Tavis Smiley will discuss the importance of individual and collective action, as well as accountability, in the movement to end poverty in America. Joanne Carter will discuss efforts to empower people, including those with firsthand experience of poverty, to become voices for the end of poverty in their communities, with the media, and in the halls of government. Marianne Williamson will talk about how poverty is shaping up as a central issue for both political parties ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. Angela Sutton will provide a first-hand perspective about why it’s so critical to protect investments in low-income families during the upcoming mid-year elections.  

About the Tavis Smiley Foundation

The Tavis Smiley Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1999 by Tavis Smiley to enlighten, encourage and empower youth by providing leadership training that will promote and enhance a greater quality of life for them, their communities and the world. The Leadership Institute has served 7,000 youth and their families. Learnings from the Leadership Institute led to the Foundation's expanded mission to examine barriers and identify solutions to alleviate poverty and its implications in the United States across all sectors including education, healthcare, housing, income inequity and jobs, national security, and voter rights. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/TavisTalks or follow our news on Twitter at twitter.com/tavissmiley. More information about Ending Poverty: America’s Silent Spaces can be found at www.tavistalks.com/endingpoverty

About RESULTS

RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund are sister organizations that, together, are a leading force in ending poverty in the United States and around the world. We create long-term solutions to poverty by supporting programs that address its root causes — lack of access to medical care, education, or opportunity to move up the economic ladder. We do this by empowering ordinary people to become extraordinary voices for the end of poverty in their communities, the media, and the halls of government. The collective voices of these passionate grassroots activists, coordinated with grass-tops efforts driven by our staff, leverage millions of dollars for programs and improved policies that give low-income people the tools they need to move out of poverty.

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