The Bertram M. Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty,
Fordham University, New York, NY 

Founded in 1999, the Bertram M. Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty is a multi-faith organization whose mission is to serve as an information and education resource to religious leaders and their congregations for faith-based engagement on public and private social policies that will reduce poverty in the United States. The Beck Institute’s Board of Directors includes Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims, as well as people from grass roots groups and Wall Street. All are committed to encouraging members of the faith community to become involved in fighting poverty at a systemic level.

Most recently, the Beck Institute has committed itself to holding multi-faith consultations on poverty in each of the five boroughs of New York City. These “Consultations” use strategic outreach and dialogue to search for effective action with respected allies and new partners.  The Consultations are five events, and each event is an interfaith program that explores fresh strategies for increasing faith community involvement in a systemic approach to reducing US poverty.  The Consultations bring together diverse clergy, lay leaders, and anti-poverty advocates in each borough for shared study, reflection and dialogue.  The Consultations cultivate new relationships between members of those groups.

The Consultations begin with an examination of the local economy, as seen from the perspective of the specific borough, followed by personal witness concerning the "lived experience" of trying to survive and get out of poverty.  Dialogue facilitators then use a specially-designed methodology to lead an exploration of the dynamics of moral leadership, including what resources will equip religious leaders to provide leadership for addressing the root causes of poverty, and what factors create resistance to their exercise of such leadership. 

The wisdom of Consultation participants is also sought in a brainstorming exercise that solicits ideas for a simple message from the religious community that might gain enough aggregate critical mass to register the understanding that ongoing poverty in the United States is morally unacceptable.  This would be a message that diverse people of faith could sign onto, across lines of religious, political and other differences.  It is hard to believe the national will to find sound, long-term solutions to poverty can be achieved without broad agreement on this (seemingly) simple moral principle.

A pilot Consultation was held in Brooklyn on February 13, 2003. The model will be refined and events will be held in the four other boroughs of New York over the next year or two.  Conference findings will be communicated to all participants, and will contribute to a city-wide event at which next steps are planned.

Contact point:

Annie Rawlings, Director
The Bertram M. Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty at Fordham University
Graduate School of Social Service
113 West 60th Street
New York, NY  10023

Phone: 212-636-6624; E-mail: arawlings@fordham.edu