Case Study: The Poverty Institute
The Poverty Institute has been on a tear since its founding in 1999. It created the “Rhode Island Standard of Need,” replacing a federal poverty standard which was seriously outdated. It issued a report on tax incentives, and cast a critical eye on Rhode Island’s annual $1 billion giveaway to businesses that promise to stimulate the economy. It’s been a busy advocate for programs that reduce adult illiteracy, a major contributor to poverty. And it continues to be a watchdog on the state’s welfare efforts, whose successful reform back in 1996 was in large part due to the Institute’s founders.

Project
Research on issues affecting low- and moderate-income Rhode Islanders

Why the Foundation invested
Effective policy, advocacy and systems reform all depend on sound data and unbiased analysis. The Poverty Institute filled a gap. The Institute is now the single best source of credible information regarding the state’s large low- and moderate-income population. The Rhode Island Foundation was founded in 1916 to help solve problems that stem from poverty. Poverty-related issues remain one of the Foundation’s top funding priorities.

Background
The Poverty Institute was founded by Rhode Island College professor Dr. Nancy Gewirtz and attorney Linda Katz (“the single most knowledgeable person in the state on poverty issues,” says one insider). These are the same policy experts who forged Rhode Island’s 1996 Family Independence Act, considered a national model of progressive welfare reform.

The Institute provides critical data and analysis to many audiences: planners, policy makers, state administrators, the media, activists, advocates, and more.

The Institute tracks trends (for instance, 30% of RI's children now live in a single-parent household vs. 12% in 1970). It argues fiercely against inequities in the state’s tax laws that unfairly burden the poor or favor corporations with tax breaks that require no accountability. It calculates the true benefit to the state’s economy of “work supports” such as adult education, training, childcare and healthcare subsidies. And it works closely with state agencies and legislators concerned with the costs and consequences of welfare reform.

Case study: George A. Wiley Center

Systems reform can take years — a decade, in this particular case, even though the benefit (higher academic achievement) was obvious, and the federal government was ready to cover the cost. Thanks to the Wiley Center's persistent and effective lobbying, 93% of Rhode Island's poor children can now get a free or inexpensive breakfast at their school, a change that is improving their performance in the classroom.

Project
Free/low-cost breakfasts in public schools, for children of low-income families

Why the Foundation invested
In the 1980s, studies showed that too many children of low-income families went to school on empty bellies. Hunger and poor grades were linked. The federal government had long supported free breakfast programs as a remedy.

But Rhode Island's school districts saw breakfast as a parental responsibility and a logistical headache. With persistence and ingenuity, the Wiley Center organized a statewide campaign to change minds. Wiley-trained volunteers went district to district, to countless meetings with teachers, parents, and school officials, making the case.

After a decade of lobbying — and sustained by a series of Foundation grants to the Center — victory finally came. In 1998, the legislature passed a bill mandating free or reduced-price breakfasts in every Rhode Island public school where at least 20% of children qualified for this kind of federal aid. The School Breakfast Program now feeds a nutritious, morning meal to around 7,000 students daily.

Background
The Wiley Center is a tireless advocate for Rhode Island's working poor and their children. Founded in 1981 by Henry Shelton (an activist whom Senator Claiborne Pell has called "the conscience of Rhode Island"), the Wiley Center specializes in coalition building and grassroots organizing. The Center had a major hand in helping the state craft its model welfare reform act. And in 1998 the Center launched its most ambitious effort yet, the Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Poverty.