People Create Change: Why Public Policy, Government and a Liberal Arts Education Matter in the Fight Against Inequality
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Authors
White, Andrew
Issue Date
2014-11-14
Type
event
flash
flash
Language
Keywords
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Alternative Title
The Liberal Arts in an Unequal Society
Abstract
Idealism and pragmatism meet in the decades-long transformation of New York City’s neighborhoods, social welfare and human services. From affordable housing and community development to public health, public assistance and child welfare, the last 30 years have seen an elaborate dance that includes working class and low-income New Yorkers along with public policy makers—often working together, in creative tension. The results have been remarkable, if incomplete, despite structural forces that make progress invariably difficult. We know with certainty that public policy, government and the nonprofit sector all matter a great deal when it comes to addressing severe poverty and reducing the traumas and turmoil that economic poverty creates in people’s lives. And we know from deep experience that the liberal arts education of several generations of government and nonprofit leaders and staff has shaped this work, often for the better.