Smart Talk: Chasing the Dream — focus on poverty

What to look for on Smart Talk Wednesday, May 18, 2016:

The complex issue of poverty is often approached without a proper understanding of the nuances to the root causes and subsequent effects in families, homes and communities.

With that in mind, WITF is one of several public media outlets participating in a national project called Chasing the Dream — Poverty and Opportunity in America.  As part of the project, WITF will take a multimedia, data-driven approach to poverty in Pennsylvania, telling the stories of people who live in its grip.

Chasing the Dream launches on Wednesday’s Smart Talk with a focus on where poverty is in Pennsylvania.  Geography isn’t the main priority on the program, but how poverty manifest itself in urban, rural and suburban areas of Pennsylvania is. 

On the show, we’ll hear the stories of two women — one who lives in a Central Pennsylvania city and another who is from Potter County — one of the most rural counties in the state.

Pennsylvania has a poverty rate of 13.7% with 6% living in extreme poverty; 12% have food insecurity and more than 15,000 people are homeless.  To explain what all these numbers mean and bring their own observations are Scott Shewell of Safe Harbour in Carlisle, Joe Arthur of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and Barry Denk of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.