Experts to meet in Detroit to discuss ways to cut poverty rate

By Sherri Welch
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20100226/FREE/100229866

National poverty experts will be in Detroit Tuesday, March 2, to discuss ways to cut the poverty rate by one percent in the country’s largest 51 metropolitan areas over the next two to four years.

The daylong series of presentations at United Way for Southeastern Michigan was sparked by CEOs for Cities research that identifies $13 billion in public benefit program savings from just a one percent drop in the poverty rate in those regions.

Chicago-based CEOs for Cities is a nonprofit network of businesses, nonprofits and mayors dedicated to building the next generation of great American cities.

The poverty research is part of a larger CEOs for Cities study, “City Dividends,” which identifies $166 billion in economic benefits from decreasing poverty rates and increasing college degree attainment rates by just one percent. It also proposes decreasing the number of miles driven by each person by one mile per day.

CEOs for Cities plans to present the recommendations from the daylong, Detroit summit at a strategy session in New York later this year and on its Web site.

United Way also plans to make the recommendations available on its Web site.