The New Hope Project: Building Bridges to Work

Milwaukee's black/white jobless gap is highest in U.S.

October 14th, 2008 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Two New Hope Project participants, Lawrence Griffin and Vonnie Thomas along with NHP project representative Terron Edwards, are interviewed regarding the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development report on joblessness. The report finds that Milwaukee ranks second among 35 major U.S. cities in African-American male joblessness (behind Buffalo, NY) but has the largest gap between black and white joblessness.

Milwaukee Public Radio Features New Hope Participant's Story

July 11th, 2008 in WUWM News, Milwaukee Public Radio 89.7 FM
Milwaukee Public Radio station WUWM featured the success of the New Hope Project, focusing on the story of one of our participants, Charleton "Charles" Dupar. Reporter Susan Bence interviews Program Director, Tom Back and Mr. Dupar, while describing NHP's program to help convicted felons lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty through work.

From Cellblock to Craft

April 14th, 2008 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Taycheedah prison has instituted a program to train inmates as dental lab technicians. The New Hope Project is mentioned as the Milwaukee site for the multi-city, three-year Joyce Foundation experiment. Executive Director, Julie Kerksick, is quoted.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cites New Hope's long term benefits, suggests program 'revival'

August 18th, 2008 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial staff cite New Hope Project's benefits fourteen years after participating in the original demonstration program. The article reports the circumstances that led Julia Doyle to New Hope in the mid 90's and how she succeeded in lifting herself and her family out of poverty. Read the Journal Sentinel article.

New State project links parolees to work

February 21st, 2008 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Two state departments said Thursday that they were teaming up with the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board on a $400,000 pilot project to put parolees and young adults with little training or experience into good jobs with benefits. New Hope Project's Executive Director, Julie Kerksick, is interviewed for this article. Read the Journal Sentinel article.

Forum looks at New Hope's plan for making work pay

December 15th, 2007 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Reporter Audrey Hoffer briefs readers that Washington, D.C.'s Hamilton Project at Brookings highlighted New Hope Project's success. Read the Journal Sentinel article.

Editorial: Childhood Poverty Reduced Under New Hope Project Program

October 16th, 2007 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial
Speakers at the recent conference on Children's Health, Poverty and Ethical Issues of Social Justice pointed to the long term positive effects on the children whose parents participated in the original New Hope Project demonstration program. Editors at Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel believe, "The nation must overcome the main obstacle to fighting [childhood poverty]: the lack of will to do so." Read the editorial posted October 12, 2007.

Executive Director Julie Kerksick on WHAD Wisconsin Public Radio 90.7 FM

August 31st, 2007
What's the real effect of economic growth on the majority? Wisconsin Public Radio's Kathleen Dunn and her guests Julie Kerksick and Charity Eleson discuss a recent Census Bureau report that the median household income rose point-seven-percent last year, but Milwaukee had the nation's eighth-highest poverty rate.

- Julie Kerksick, executive director, The New Hope Project, Milwaukee.
- Charity Eleson, executive director, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

Prisoner re-entry series -- Part I: Job programs try to help inmates start off right

August 14th, 2007 in WHAD - Wisconsin Public Radio 90.7 FM
Nationally, the phrase "prisoner re-entry" has become a buzz word. Over the past decade millions of dollars, both public and private, have been spent on programs designed to reduce the human traffic surging in and out through the revolving prison doors. The most recent study in Wisconsin shows that more than a third of inmates released wind up back in prison within three years. In the first of a 5 part series, Gil Halsted reports on one of the latest efforts in Milwaukee to at least slow down the revolving door…

Ex-inmates helped into work world: New Hope program eases post-prison transition

June 19th, 2007 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In the governor's budget, it's a $1 million outlay for a prison-to-work program in Milwaukee. But in the eyes of Jeannette Tyra, the New Hope Project's transitional jobs initiative is a way to give convicted criminals a chance at redemption.

Major Study Finds That Strengthening the Safety Net for Working Poor Parents Has Lasting Benefits for Their Children

June 10th, 2003 in MDRC
A new study, released today by the University of Texas at Austin and MDRC, reports that New Hope, a pioneering Milwaukee initiative designed to boost household income and to provide work supports for low-income working families, has led to long-term gains in children's school performance and important improvements in children's behavior. Improving the well-being of children has been an objective of national welfare policy since welfare's beginnings in 1935. But since the 1970's and culminating with the passage of the 1996 welfare reform law and its imposition of time limits on benefit receipt, this goal has been overshadowed by concerns about moving welfare recipients away from dependency and into employment. Now, as federal and state policymakers debate the reauthorization of the 1996 law, a consensus has emerged to make improving the well-being of children the overarching issue. The New Hope findings provide solid evidence of a policy intervention that achieves this long-deferred national goal.

Editorial: The promise of New Hope

July 2nd, 2003 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In the 1990s, when the nation was contemplating alternatives to traditional welfare, Milwaukee went beyond contemplation and actually put into motion a pilot, work-oriented assistance program dubbed the New Hope Project. The test ran just four years - from 1994 to '98 - but the research findings continue to stream in.

'Fast Facts' on Poverty

April 20th, 2007
In 2006, 37 million (12.6%) American adults were living in families with incomes below the official poverty line, about $15,720 for a family of three (two adults, one child).
Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005;
See details on poverty thresholds: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Poverty is surprisingly common among full-time working adults in the United States. At the inception of the New Hope program in 1994, 6.5 million American adults, whether parents or not, were working full time but earned too little to lift their families above the poverty line. In 2004, 5.7 million adults were working full-time but still living in poverty, affecting 6.8 million children.
Source: Calculations from Current Population Surveys, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Adult data apply to individuals between age 18 and 54. Working-poor adults as those who report working 30 or more “usual” weekly hours and who live in a family with total income below the poverty line.