Achievements & Impacts
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In 2012, the Center for Social Policy celebrated 20 years of meaningful impact and change through its applied research on poverty solutions.
Examples of notable accomplishments
2012
- The Center for Social Policy, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute release commissioned report for Eos Foundation to inform their anti-hunger initiatives
- Françoise Carré presents recent findings on the Alternative Staffing Demonstration at the annual conference of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals
- CSP wins multi-year grant from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation to evaluate grantmaking on growing up healthy and its other priority areas
- Keith Gunnar Bentele publishes “Evaluating the Performance of the US Social Safety Net in The Great Recession"
- Tim H. Davis and Terry Saunders Lane co-author “Rapid Re-Housing of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Massachusetts: Maintaining Housing Stability”
- Randy Albelda and Michael Carr co-author “Low-Wage and Low-Income Workers in the U.S., 1979-2009,” which explores changes by gender and family status
- Chris Warhurst, Françoise Carré, Patricia Findlay, and Chris Tilly publish Are Bad Jobs Inevitable?: Trends, Determinants and Responses to Job Quality in the Twenty-First Century, an edited collection of cutting edge research on contemporary topics on the study of labor and job quality
2011
- CSP initiates “Merging Knowledge” dialogues with Fourth World Movement staff to facilitate mutual learning among poverty experts and constituents
- CSP releases national report, Finding the Right Fit: How Alternative Staffing Affects Workers Outcomes, highlighting innovative methods for nontraditional job seekers
- Arthur MacEwan co-authors with John A. Miller, Economic Collapse, Economic Change: Getting to the Roots of the Crisis
- Randy Albelda creates eight one-page fact sheets on poverty in the Massachusetts
- Randy Albelda provides expert testimony for the Massachusetts State Legislature, "An Act to Invest in Our Communities"
- Françoise Carré presents “Explaining variation in the quality of retail jobs” at the Labor and Employment Relations Association Annual Meeting
2010
- CSP receives a five year grant award ($500,000 total) to serve as the strategic evaluator and analytical partner for the Boston Foundation's Fairmont Corridor Initiative
- Department of Elementary and Secondary Education changes adult basic education assessment and screening practices/tools based on center recommendations on distance learning
- The Massachusetts House and Senate pass foreclosure-protection legislation based on center-facilitated dialogues
- Randy Albelda participates in the Equal Pay Research Summit hosted by the Women's Economic Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor and National Council for Research on Women conference, "Reinvesting in Women and Families: Developing an Economy for the Future"
- Françoise Carré presents "Short hours, long hours, flexible hours: Hours levels and hours adjustments in the retail industry in the United States, Canada, and Mexico" at the W.E. Upjohn Institute conference, "Labor Markets in Recession and Recovery"
2009
- CSP partners with the Boston Foundation to evaluate community development, housing, and family services in Boston’s Fairmount Corridor
- Immigrant Workers in the Massachusetts Health Care Industry examines workforce needs and the importance of immigrants in the pipeline
2008
- Collaboration with Crittenton Women's Union, Fits and Starts: The Different Path for Single Working Parents, documents how existing policies inadvertently create hurdles to employment and career advancement for low-income families
2007
- Bridging the Gaps: A Picture of How Work Supports in Ten States, a collaboration with the Center for Economic Policy Research, demonstrates the importance of both earnings and public work supports for low-income working families
- Convenes conference at JFK Library, “Looking Back and Looking Forward: Policy Visions from the New Deal”, funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
1998-2004
- Provides technical assistance to homeless service planners in eight states which leads to data for HUD's Annual Homelessness Report to Congress
2003
- Groundbreaking study, Surviving Against the Odds, illustrates how welfare, housing, and homelessness policies intersect in the lives of homeless families
1997
- In Harm's Way, was the first study examining domestic violence among AFDC recipients in the context of the 1996 Massachusetts welfare reforms
1995-1996
- Families at Risk Project offers recommendations on re-designing the state's family shelter system
1995
- CSP pioneers the use of advanced technology in collecting and generating data to inform homelessness planning and service delivery