If you plan to attend this briefing, please register HERE by February 28th.

Follow @First_Focus on Twitter for a link to watch the event live-streamed. 
The National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC), First Focus and Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Pennsylvania State University will co-host a briefing with nationally recognized experts and legislative perspectives on child and intergenerational poverty.

The United States has the second highest child poverty rate among 35 industrialized nations and children in the U.S. are 69 percent more likely to live in poverty than adults. The effects of poverty on child development range from physical health problems to difficulties in school, inattention, conduct problems, and social rejection. Later in adolescence, impoverished children are more likely to fail academically, drop out, become pregnant, exhibit aggression, and form unhealthy peer relationships. Given these consequences, it is perhaps not surprising that child poverty costs the U.S. approximately $672 billion a year. Although economic and behavioral prevention strategies cannot eliminate all negative effects, they can reduce their severity and improve child development, as well as reduce costs to society. And importantly, there is evidence that they can eventually increase economic security by improving employability and relationships. Briefing speakers will provide an overview of this expansive problem and then cover interventions, strategies, and policies to prevent or reduce childhood poverty.

 -------Agenda------- 
Moderator: Deborah Stein, J.D. (Network Director, Partnership for America's Children).

Dr. Ron Prinz (Carolina Distinguished Professor, Parenting & Family Research Center, University of South Carolina). Poverty compromises the ability of children to reach developmental milestones. Evidence-based interventions and policies have been shown to reduce poverty and its detrimental effects on child development.

Dr. Ben Gibbs (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Brigham Young University). Situational vs. intergenerational poverty: Why that distinction mattered in establishing best practice legislation in Utah, modeled by others.

Bruce Lesley (President, First Focus). Evidence-based policy and legislation geared to cutting childhood poverty by 50% in ten years.

Event Contacts:  

Neil Wollman, Ph.D. Co-Director of NPSC and Senior Fellow, Bentley University (NWollman@Bentley.edu or 260-568-0116)

Diana Fishbein, Ph.D. Director of the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center Pennsylvania State University and Co-Director of NPSC (Dfishbein@psu.edu)

About the Organizers

First Focus is a nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. First Focus leads a comprehensive advocacy strategy, with its hands-on experience with federal policymaking and a commitment to seeking policy solutions. First Focus moves beyond individual issues to serve a more important role: children’s advocates.

The National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC) is composed of scientists, educators, practitioners and clinicians, policy makers, foundation representatives, and affiliated organizations, housed at Pennsylvania State University. We work in a nonpartisan manner with Congressional offices and Caucuses and collaborate with like-minded groups and federal agency administrators (e.g., NIH, SAMHSA, ONDCP, OJJDP, CDC) in a mutual advisory capacity. Coalition members share a common goal of applying validated scientific findings to wide-scale effective implementation of practices and policies to improve the lives of children, adolescents, their families and communities. We work across sectors to address challenges in mental and behavioral health, education, poverty, juvenile and criminal justice, adverse environmental influences and social conditions that contribute to chronic illness and social ills. Our work includes congressional briefings, policy papers, op-eds, and fact sheets for the public and private sectors. NPSC has conducted 11 previous prevention-related briefings (Violence and Sexual Assault Against Women; Evidence-Based Policy; Preventing Opioid Addictions; Healthy Parenting through Primary Care; Reducing Poverty; Violence Prevention; Economics of Prevention; Science to Policy; Juvenile Justice Reform; Scaling-up Implementation; and Interventions Across Policy Areas). Briefings are designed to be of value to legislators, staffers, administrators, researchers, evaluators, educators, practitioners, advocates, and funders.