Presented by Harvest Food & Outreach Center; Hosted by Susan & Carter Hopkins

When: October 2, 2015 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where: The Richardson Center Mueller Auditorium, Indian River State College, 6155 College Ln., Vero Beach, FL

Registration: Online registration at irc.harvestfoodoutreach.org. This event is free to attendees and is presented as a service to facilitate cooperation and conversation regarding issues that impact poverty. Seating is limited for the first 200 registrants. Service providers, policy makers and interested public are attending event.

Focus: Educational experience that focuses on private, public and nonprofit sector employment partnerships. 

Event Agenda

8:30 Registration and Breakfast

9:00 Introductions

9:00- 9:45 National Perspective – What is Alice and how have United Ways and others across the country utilized ALICE research for Community Impact?  -John Franklin, United Way of Northern New Jersey, Cedar Knolls, New Jersey (speech and questions/discussion)

10:00 – 10:45 Florida findings and issues – Dr. James Wright, University of Central  Florida, Orlando FL

10:45-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-11:45 Local Strategies for change – Maria Kim, The Cara Project, Chicago IL

11:45 – 12:30 How Public and Private sector can collaborate – Employer discussion forum facilitated by Dr. Katherine Nall, Indian River State College

12:30 Closing statements

 

Speaker Profiles

John Franklin, CEO of United Way of Northern New Jersey

United Way of Northern New Jersey is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving life for ALICE TM (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) and all New Jersey residents by removing the barriers that keep hardworking individuals from achieving their potential. As CEO, Franklin has been the driving force behind the United Way ALICE Project, a grassroots movement among United Ways across the country that seeks to shine a spotlight on residents who – despite working – cannot afford to make ends meet.

Through the Project, Franklin is leading a charge to look beyond temporary fixes and instead find solutions that result in long-term, sustainable change for the betterment of all families. At the heart of this strategy is Franklin’s belief that no one organization can accomplish this task alone; it takes diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and talents to achieve the greatest outcomes for those most in need. During his nearly 20 years with United Way, Franklin has been building a coalition of business, community, academic, and political leaders committed to addressing the systemic obstacles that prevent individuals from achieving financial stability.

James D. Wright, author, educator, and the Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Central Florida. 

Wright also serves as the Director of the UCF Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences.  He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1973 and taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Tulane University before coming to UCF in 2001.  He has published twenty-two books and more than 300 journal articles, book chapters, essays, reviews, and polemics on topics ranging from poverty to homelessness to guns in America to NASCAR to survey and evaluation research methods. His latest research monograph is Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation (written with Amy M. Donley).   Wright is also the editor-in-chief of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, published in 26 volumes by Elsevier in 2015.

In addition to his University duties, Wright is an active member of the Orlando community.  He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, the Homeless Services Network, the HOPE Helps Foundation in Oviedo, the Orlando Area Trust for the Homeless, and several others.  He is also a frequent consultant to the Heart of Florida United Way and Second Harvest Food Bank.  Nationally, he sits on the Board of Directors of the Horowitz Foundation for Public Policy and is an active member of the Southern Sociological Society.  Internationally, he serves as the Subject Chair for the Social Sciences to Scopus, Elsevier’s journal indexing, abstracting and citation service.  He teaches mostly graduate level courses at UCF, including Program Design and Evaluation; Survey Design; Poverty and Homelessness; and Urban Sociology.

Maria Kim, President and CEO of The CARA Program in Chicago, IL

After 13 years in the insurance industry (with her last position leading the technology division for a $400m insurance firm), in 2005 Maria Kim joined The Cara Program – a workforce development and leadership development organization helping men and women affected by poverty to secure and sustain quality employment.  As CEO, she is charged with the oversight of The Cara Program’s strategic plan to create or secure 3,500 jobs over five years, through two training campuses, and multiple social enterprises designed to drive jobs for the most difficult to employ, while building diversified revenue for the firm.

Maria serves on Governor Rauner’s 21st Century Workforce Development Fund Advisory Committee and her social purpose experience includes past board leadership at Horizons for Youth, and her current role as a Founding Board Member for the EPIC Academy, a charter high school in South Chicago.  Maria also serves on the boards of Rebuilding Exchange, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, and the Practitioner Advisory Board for the Science of Philanthropy Initiative. She was a fellow for Leadership Greater Chicago’s Class of 2008, served on the board for the Leadership Fellows Association in 2009 and 2010, was a 2012 American Marshall Memorial Fellow and a 2013 TEDx Midwest Emerging Leader.