CVH Releases "Faces of Poverty" to Illustrate Experiences of Poverty with Release of U.S. Poverty Statistics

Low-income New Yorkers who are also leaders of Community Voices Heard (CVH) have released a short video documenting what it means to be poor in New York. The video "Faces of Poverty" puts a "face on poverty," drawing attention to the way in which statistics translate into daily lived experiences amongst NYC's poorest residents and long-term unemployed. CVH leaders highlight the solutions they deem would best address poverty in NYC as well as encouraging policy makers to remember the long-term unemployed in national and state recovery efforts.On a day that we are bombarded by numbers and data, CVH leaders humanize and analyze poverty statistics by describing: the difficulties of finding work after being incarcerated; trying to move out of poverty while being a single mother on public assistance; getting on your feet while living in the shelter system; and the navigating an inadequate welfare system that does more to keep people in poverty rather than equip them with the skills and opportunities to move out of poverty permanently.