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Nutter launches anti-poverty plan

Mayor Nutter's administration today released a long-awaited plan to combat poverty in Philadelphia, which has suffered the highest poverty rate of any of the nation's 10 biggest cities for at least 20 years.

Mayor Nutter's administration today released a long-awaited plan to combat poverty in Philadelphia, which has suffered the highest poverty rate of any of the nation's 10 biggest cities for at least 20 years.

The plan, "Shared Prosperity Philadelphia," comes from the Mayor's Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity, which Nutter created in January.

CEO, as it's called, replaced the Mayor's Office of Community Service as the city's overseer of the $7 million federal community action block grant.

"Shared Prosperity" establishes five broad policy goals:

  1. Target job creation and workforce development efforts for adults with the greatest barriers to jobs.

  1. Expand access to public benefits and essential services.

  1. Ensure that children enter school prepared and expand year-round learning opportunities.

  1. Increase housing security and affordability.

  1. Strengthen economic security and asset building.

Nutter appointed Eva Gladstein, who has been lauded for her work helping to overhaul the Zoning Code, to lead the CEO. She and the staff have been meeting with anti-poverty experts and advocates, many of whom had been calling for a comprehensive city plan for years, while creating "Shared Prosperity" over the past few months.

Twenty-eight percent of Philadelphia live below the federal poverty line, the largest percentage among the nation's 10 largest cities and higher than any top-20 city except Detroit.

Blacks and Latinos are more than twice as likely to be in poverty as their white counterparts, according to the plan, and a staggering 39 percent of Philly's children are poor.

The action plan includes benchmark "signs of success" for each broader category, such as "25,000 more jobs, including 1,700 in the hospitality industry, by the end of 2015" and "at least 50 Philadelphians employed each year through the new First Source policy."

The plan highlights the gap in Philadelphia's recent development, in which Center City and nearby areas are booming for the first time in years while poor neighborhoods remain mired in poverty.

"In some ways, today's Philadelphia is bustling with energy and promise. Between 2000 and 2010, our population grew for the first time in six decades," it says. "Yet the city faces a silent crisis that could prevent it from realizing its full potential: persistent poverty."

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