Addressing group members meeting at the Savannah Morning News building, Mayor Otis Johnson said the Step Up Savannah’s Poverty Reduction Initiative was all about building a just and caring community. He noted that Savannah’s poverty rate is between 22 and 27 percent.

To read the full Savannah Morning News article, click here.

Drive through Detroit’s east side, the north side of Philadelphia, the south side of Chicago or Milwaukee’s near north side. Parts of urban America look like battle zones — burned-out buildings, decaying streets, vacant lots strewn with trash, empty factories and abandoned homes. There are blocks where it’s much easier to buy alcohol than apples, where life expectancy is similar to that in a Third World nation’s, where far more young men go to prison than to college.

To read the full Detroit Free Press editorial and its take on Savannah’s poverty reduction efforts, click here.  

“Entrepreneurs and small businesses in need of loans have a new resource in Savannah. International microfinance pioneer Accion is opening a new lending office in Savannah.”

to read the full Savannah Morning News article, click here.

“Hundreds of dollars in annual savings could potentially be created for millions of moderate- and lower-income workers today by doing nothing more than shifting them from the high-costs basic financial services that they currently rely upon to lower-cost services.”

The research brief was issued January 2008 for the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institution.

To read the full report by authors Matt Fellowes and Mia Mabanta, click here.

The American dream is founded on the belief that people who work hard and play by the rules will be able to earn a good living, raise a family in comfort and retire with dignity.

But that dream is harder to achieve for millions of Americans because they spend too much of their hard-earned money on fees to cash their paychecks or pay off high-priced loans meant to carry them over until they get paid at work.

To read the full Wall Street Journal opinion piece, click here.

“A new study by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute concludes that the state of Georgia could improve its economic prospects by doing more to educate adults who lack high school diplomas and provide more affordable access to higher education for low-income working adults.”

To read the full study, issued in January, click here.

The National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families issued a report based on the NLC’s survey in 2007 of municipal leaders to identify city initiatives to combat poverty. Nearly 100 member cities replied. Savannah is one of 13 cities highlighted in this report.

Click here to read the full report on the NLC Web site

Employees in the tourism industry often leave their jobs because they can’t find affordable quality child care downtown. Local hotels and Step Up, Savannah’s Poverty Reduction Initiative are working together to change that.

To read the full story, click here.

If someone offered a way to decrease employee absenteeism, increase productivity, decrease turnover and keep the bottom line healthy, would local business leaders buy into it?

To read the complete article, click here.

When low-income student populations are high, achievement is typically low.

But it doesn’t have to be.

To read the full story, click here.