Press release from Pisgah Legal Services:
Kathryn Edin, Princeton sociologist and author, will be this year’s keynote speaker for Pisgah Legal Services’ 8th Annual Poverty Forum, “Making Ends Meet: Women and Poverty in WNC,” on Thursday, October 4, 2018. The Forum will be held at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at the U.S. Cellular Center.
“Pisgah Legal Services is pleased to welcome Dr. Kathryn Edin, one of the nation’s leading poverty researchers, as this year’s forum speaker as we focus on the struggles of low-income women and their families in Western North Carolina,” said Jim Barrett, Pisgah Legal Services Executive Director. “In this, our fortieth anniversary year, we chose to focus on women because 75 percent of our clients are women.”
Kathryn Edin is a professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Social Insurance, and is the Margaret Mead Fellow at the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. The hallmark of her research is her direct, in-depth observations of the lives of low-income women, men and children.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, 15.2% of women in North Carolina live in poverty, higher than the national average. The problem is much worse for single mothers. On average, 41.3% of single mothers living in the WNC counties served by Pisgah Legal Services (Buncombe, Henderson, Transylvania, Rutherford, Madison and Polk) live in poverty. The poverty rate for those with young children (under 5 years of age) is even higher – for example, a staggering 72.7% in Madison County.
Edin has authored 8 books and some 60 journal articles. $2 a Day: The Art of Living on Virtually Nothing in America, co-authored with Luke Shaefer, was met with wide critical acclaim and was included in The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015.
Barrett continued, “We host these annual forums to bring attention to the challenges of low-income people living in our mountains, to encourage activism, and to generate ways that we can work together to make our communities stronger.”
The October event begins with a cocktail reception at 5:30 pm, and the forum follows at 7:00 pm at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville. Tickets are $50/person for the reception and forum, $15/person for the forum only and are available at the U.S. Cellular website starting on August 15.
PLS wishes to thank the many sponsors who help make this event possible. Details for those who wish to become a sponsor are available at www.pisgahlegal.org.
Since 1978, PLS has helped low-income people in the mountain region meet their basic needs, such as protection from domestic violence, avoiding homelessness, finding safe housing, accessing health care and increasing income. Pisgah Legal Services has 22 attorneys on staff and relies heavily on the pro bono legal services of approximately 300 volunteer attorneys and the help of more than 100 office and health insurance navigator volunteers. Last year local people donated more than 13,000 in volunteer hours to Pisgah Legal Services. The nonprofit’s main service area includes six counties in WNC, with offices in Asheville, Brevard, Hendersonville, Marshall and Rutherfordton. For more information, call Pisgah Legal Services at 828-253-0406 or toll free at 800-489-6144 or go to www.pisgahlegal.org.
They’re charging admission to a poverty forum….that’s funny.