STEP FORWARD - Shriver Center

By Wendy Pollack, Director, Women’s Law & Policy Project

The combination of a weak economy and the inflation of food prices has taken its toll on all households, but low-income households have been particularly hard-hit. As the national unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent in July, the number of people receiving food stamp benefits hit a record high of over 28 million. The Illinois unemployment rate in July stood at 7.3 percent. Recent flooding has only compounded the difficulties for residents of the affected Illinois counties. Illinois is experiencing record numbers of food stamp recipients as well. In April the number of people receiving food stamps was almost 1.3 million. (more…)

By Margaret Stapleton, Senior Attorney

Backstory: In February, the Financial Times and then the New York Times reported on research showing that “poverty in early childhood poisons the brain” leading to lifelong impairments. Last month, the New York Times reported on the correlation between poverty and problems with education. Poverty causes families to move; thus their children change schools frequently. This disrupts not only their children’s education but also the education of all the other children in the school. This is bad news for all the children and for the schools struggling to meet federal No Child Left Behind expectations. (more…)

By John Bouman, President

A survey published in last week’s Crain’s Chicago Business documents the fact that many Chicago-area working families with income close to twice the poverty level have trouble buying food and regularly go hungry. Working hard all day does not get them what they need, especially with the escalating costs of gas, utilities, and rent. (more…)

By Marie Claire Tran, Loyola Fellow

Governors possess one of the most important yet grossly underused tools available to help people who have criminal conviction records and want to rehabilitate themselves-the power to pardon. Usually associated with political insiders, the power to pardon should be more frequently invoked to provide relief to people with criminal records for whom remedies such as expungement and sealing are not available. (more…)

By Michaella Furman, Special Projects Coordinator, Women’s Law and Policy Project

In today’s economy, people are increasingly wary about job protection and retention. Unemployment is on the rise and at nearly a three-year high. Last month was the third consecutive month that U.S. employers slashed jobs. With a net loss of 80,000 jobs in March, this has been the longest period of decline since 2003. Working families need additional protection to ensure that they keep their jobs and be financially stable when they have a medical emergency or family situation that warrants leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

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