Evaluation, n.d.

This series documents the products, projects, and partnerships of the Persistent Poverty Project. The Project not only created its own working groups and publications, but was frequently invited into initiatives being worked on by other groups. The Project was the author of several publications, including In The Midst of Plenty, In Our Own Words, and To Make Our City Whole, as well as shorter publications like White Poverty in Boston and Single Parents and Poverty in Boston. Researchers should note that the Project often put out a shorter monograph version of its longer reports and that some of the summary material is in Spanish. One of the Project's main goals was to institutionalize poverty data and ensure that it was kept up to date. The Boston Children and Families database is the prime example of the Project's work in this direction. With the collaboration of Northeastern University and other Boston organizations, the Project aimed to systematize and make available a computerized database of material about Boston residents. This database was meant to be more flexible than traditional methods of data storage and presentation, enabling researchers to perform multiple searches over multiple fields and have the data presented in a variety of forms depending on the particular need. The database was intended to be updated periodically, expanding as time went by. The Community Building Curriculum was also a key project involving the development of a coalition and community building curriculum. This curriculum was designed to be presented to community members in a series of workshops, training people in skills such as holding meetings, facilitating discussions, being sensitive to ethnic differences, and other skills to support and promote community building by community members.

Projects. This subseries documents the activities of the Project, most of which aimed to make poverty data widely accessible. This goal was largely in response to a concern of the governing Strategy Design Group that poverty data be institutionalized and brought to the attention of the general public. This series also documents the Project's involvement in outside initiatives such as the Boston Empowerment Zone, meant to take advantage of a National Technology and Information Administration grant cycle to give money to reinvigorate urban areas through technology. The subseries also includes material from the Boston Consortium on Community and Technology which became two groups, the Community and Technology Working Group, and the Boston Community Building Curriculum. Records include meeting minutes, manuals, correspondence, grants, agendas, notes, and contracts. This subseries contains 5 ¼ inch diskettes; researchers should note that the Archives staff was unable to check the content of these diskettes.

Publications. This subseries documents the publications of the Project, including In the Midst of Plenty, In Our Own Words, To Make Our City Whole, and monographs such as Latinos in Boston, Life in Boston, and Single Parents and Poverty in Boston. Records include bound publication copies, press release material, summaries, and annotated drafts with notes from project directors and outside consultants including Hortensia Amaro, Wendy Puriefoy, and Charlotte Kahn. Researchers should note that some of the summary material is in Spanish.

Subject Files. This subseries documents the resources collected and used by the Project in the course of its activities, including reports and data analysis from the William Monroe Trotter Institute, other Rockefeller Foundation Project cities, the City of Boston, and Northeastern University. Records include reports, maps, graphs, charts, and statistics. This subseries contains 5 ¼ inch diskettes; researchers should note that the Archives staff was unable to check the content of these diskettes.