OKPOLICY.ORG
Have you visited TED.com? TED gathers smart people for topical conferences and then offers us the speeches in video form, organized both by topic and by user classification–persuasive, beautiful, funny, etc. You’ll find people you’ve heard of, like Al Gore and Bono, and many more you may want to hear from.
We’ve found a couple short speeches that describe some different and successful approaches to reducing poverty. First, Jacqueline Novogratz, who operates a market-oriented non-profit, provides an entertaining overview of micro-credit and other mechanisms allowing poor African women to improve their lives and those of their families. Novogratz argues persuasively that alleviating poverty requires creative approaches and providing individuals with the tools and the opportunities to help themselves.
Closer to home, Majora Carter, the president of Sustainable South Bronx in New York, makes a persuasive connection between environmental policy and fighting poverty. She describes her transition from believing that beautification programs in the ghetto were “a little bit naive” to a conviction that urban design and renewal still must be part of a comprehensive attack on poverty.
OK Policy is dedicated to expanding opportunity and alleviating poverty in Oklahoma. We advocate government policies that help people in need not just through cash and other assistance, but through opening up opportunities that have been closed off to our lower-income neighbors. TED offers some great ideas on this and a host of other important issues.
