UW Madison- Institute for Research on Poverty Jobs in and around Milwaukee, WI

Company:
UW Madison- Institute for Research on Poverty
Current Opportunities (1)
Company Website
Location(s):
Madison,  WI
53706
Map Location
Phone:
(608) 262-6358
Industry:
Education / Training
Size:
20-49

Company Overview

The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) is a university-based center for research into the causes and consequences of poverty and social inequality in the United States. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan.

The Institute was established in 1966 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, the organization given responsibility for reducing poverty in America. In the years since then, the Institute's affiliates, who represent a variety of disciplines, have formulated and tested basic theories of poverty and inequality, developed and evaluated social policy alternatives, and analyzed trends in poverty and economic well-being.

Most affiliates of the Institute hold regular teaching appointments at the university and divide their time between teaching and research. Some Institute affiliates are faculty members at other institutions who visit the Institute regularly to consult with colleagues and to present seminars. The Institute also hosts visiting scholars who, on leave from their permanent affiliation, come to IRP to conduct poverty-related research.

The principal activities of the Institute are sponsorship of the original research of its members, dissemination of their findings, and training and mentoring of future poverty researchers. Seminars, workshops, conferences, a publications program that includes print and electronic dissemination, and a challenging graduate student research training program are designed to achieve those ends.

As a university-based research institution, the Institute operates under University of Wisconsin regulations in receiving grants and disbursing funds. Grants are administered by Institute support staff. Appointments of the director and members of the Executive Committee are made by the University's College of Letters and Science. Within this framework the Institute is allowed substantial latitude in building a staff and research program.

IRP is one of three Area Poverty Research Centers sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The other two area centers are the University of Kentucky Poverty Research Center and the West Coast Poverty Research Center (WP/PRC), a new collaborative venture linking the School of Social Work and the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington with the university's departments of Economics, Sociology, and Geography. The WP/PRC will also collaborate with the Public Policy Institute of California in dissemination and other activities. ASPE also sponsors a National Poverty Center, located in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.