Groups work tirelessly every day to fight poverty, improve quality of life, and expand opportunities for the poor. But the record of their efforts can disappear.
Poverty and Inequality captures newsletters, websites, street papers, videos, podcasts, social media campaigns, outreach flyers, and advocacy reports. These are the tools communities use to share information, mobilize support, and connect people to the help they need.
At a glance
200,000+
items initially, and this is a living collection that will continually grow
1980–today
and the project will expand year after year
Groups covered include:
community action agencies and neighborhood coalitions
food banks, food-rescue programs, and mutual aid networks
tenant unions and rural housing trusts
worker centers and employment-support programs
street papers and local community newspapers
faith-based and volunteer service organizations
county and regional poverty task forces
Global in scope
Coverage includes major cities like Hong Kong, Baltimore, Detroit, London, and Toronto, alongside Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and African rural regions, where informal networks often provide the first line of support.
Community action workers around the world continue to provide services, even in the face of budget cuts and program closures, dedicated to helping the poor step out of the downward spiral of “poverty consciousness.”
Strengthens curriculum design. Supports community-focused research.
Poverty and Inequality support students, scholars, and researchers with content that can’t be found in traditional resources:
Primary sources on contemporary social issues. Born-digital materials are rarely preserved. Poverty and Inequality supports assignments, theses, and applied research with these materials.
Urban and rural coverage. With both perspectives together in one resource, comparisons across geography, infrastructure, and policy environments are now possible.
Interdisciplinary relevance. Research and studies in sociology, social work, public policy, public health, education, urban and rural studies, and nonprofit management will benefit.
Local and regional discovery. The project surfaces the work of small organizations and county-level initiatives that are typically invisible in national databases.
Support for experiential and service-learning programs. Students can study real-life community responses to housing, food access, employment, and health challenges.
Long-term preservation of fragile content. Because copies are saved, the project protects materials that often disappear when small nonprofits lose funding or shut down websites.
A living, growing record of support and resilience
All the Coherent Digital Social Justice and Culture modules, including Poverty and Inequality, are continually growing. New community organizations, mutual aid groups, and local initiatives are added as they emerge. Many of these groups may never appear in traditional archives, but their work—helping families stay housed, fed, and connected—remains visible and protected here, part of the historical record of how communities care for one another and work toward economic security. For public libraries, this is a reference tool for finding service organizations geographically.
First-person accounts
"Our Stories" sections are found on some of the Community Action Program websites. The narratives convey the power of the work of community groups in their efforts to help individuals rise out of poverty.
Central Missouri Community Action’s “Lives Changed” project states, “Our mission is to build relationships to empower people, strengthen resilience, and improve quality of life for all members of the community. With the proper support and resources, our members are able to truly change the trajectory of their lives.”
Poverty and Inequality makes it easy to search directly for these personal narratives.
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