Launched in January of 2012, the Education and Advocacy Program addresses the third pillar of Lakeview Pantry’s mission statement: Raising awareness of hunger and poverty and working towards solutions to eliminate them.

The Education and Advocacy Program promotes effective public and private community policy initiatives to provide long-term assistance to people struggling with hunger and poverty.

Lakeview Pantry serves more than 12,000 people each year, which provides a unique opportunity to not only address their basic needs, but to understand and analyze the circumstances that led these individuals and families to seek our help.

As the low-income citizen’s advocate in the public debate on poverty issues in the local community and Chicago, the Education and Advocacy Program offers four distinct types of resources:

•  An Educational Resource Center with latest poverty related facts and figures, anti-poverty research and innovations. This is a good resource for anyone looking for in-depth analysis of urban poverty and exciting discussions on related topics like affordable housing, healthcare for the low-income and economic mobility in Chicago.
•  Collaboration opportunities with community-based organizations and local City offices like Department of Family and Support Services and Department of Human Services to identify the local policy needs to assist the low-income effectively.
•  A Policy Center that develops and promotes policy ideas and legislations that provides long-term opportunities for low-income individuals and families. This is a good resource for policy makers interested in innovative policy designs to address the ever changing nature of poverty.
•  A Media Center that provides a list of publications, debates and newsletters covering local and statewide news on poverty.

 Do you want to become an agent of change?

Come… know, believe, act, and help change with us!  Contact Sreya Sarkar, Director of Education and Advocacy, at sreya@lakeviewpantry.org or 773.525.1777×24

Additional Resources:

See the latest numbers on poverty in the Lakeview area in PDF form.

Memorandum available, which was submitted to the Illinois Commission on the Elimination of Poverty on August 13^th, 2012 in a public hearing at Truman College. It contains our suggestions and feedback on how the state of Illinois is performing on its mission to cut extreme poverty by half by 2015.