The Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach has awarded six grants under the Poverty and the Economy Faculty Research Grants Program.
Sponsored by the University of Georgia Research Foundation, the grants program provides seed funding to support and encourage applied research and creative scholarship related to poverty and the economy in Georgia.
For this year’s award winners, particular emphasis was placed on how the university can address the public policy barriers that inhibit or limit an individual’s ability to participate fully in the economy and build personal wealth.
“These seed grants are important because they reflect how faculty at UGA are undertaking new approaches to address the issues associated with persistent poverty in Georgia and beyond,” says Art Dunning, vice president for public service and outreach. “Additionally, these grants build upon our research, teaching and service tradition at UGA and are reflective of the collaboration and potential for extramural support exhibited by our academic and service faculty.”
Grant award amounts range from $13,000 to $25,000.
Grant recipients, their unit and the title of their research project are: Mary Anne Alabanza Akers, School of Environmental Design, “Pathways to Achieving Economic Self-Sufficiency: A Pilot Study of Low-Income Microentrepreneurs”; Jeffrey Jordan, agricultural and applied economics, and Lew Allen, elementary education, “Addressing Poverty through Strong Schools and Strong Communities: A Service-Learning Approach”; Paul Matthews, Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, Bob Galen, public health, Donald Rubin, speech communication, and Lorilee Sandmann, lifelong learning, “Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Health Information Kiosks for Georgia’s Immigrant Latinos”; John O’Looney, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, “Georgia Local and State Government Policies Impacting the Impoverished Families’ Abilities to Transform Income into Wealth via Home Ownership”; and Karen Tinsley and Tom Rodgers, housing and consumer economics, and Ronald Warren, Department of Economics, “Barriers to Workforce Housing and Economic Self-Sufficiency in the Rural South.”