Student Quick Connect

Welcome to the West Coast Poverty Center website. A large part of our mission is to promote poverty research and encourage a new generation of poverty scholars. To that end, WCPC strives to be a resource for students.

If you are working on a paper on poverty in the United States or looking for an introduction to poverty issues, check out the poverty basics section of the site. In that section, we discuss such topics as poverty demographics, inequality, and family impacts for the U.S. and for the West Coast.

Our faculty affiliates at the University of Washington have compiled an extensive body of research on poverty from the perspectives of economics, sociology, geography, social work, public affairs, and other disciplines. Their publications are listed on this website by topic and by author to make your search for source material easier. Our research links page offers a list of links to other poverty research centers and statistical and data sources.

Whether you are a graduate or undergraduate level student, there are many poverty related classes available at UW. There are also many opportunities at UW for service-learning projects that connect coursework with life experience. Some volunteer opportunities offer college credit or a stipend.

Each quarter, WCPC offers a Poverty and Policy Seminar Series, which can be taken for graduate credit. Additionally, the West Coast Poverty Center is in the process of designing both a formalized Poverty and Policy Studies Undergraduate Minor and a multidisciplinary Doctoral Program. We hope that students will be able to begin these programs by Fall 2007 or Winter 2008.

We hope you find what you are looking for on this website. If not, please contact us and we would be happy to answer your questions or direct you to someone who can.

Thank you for your interest in poverty issues and the West Coast Poverty Center.