Creating the Change

Chapter 21 draws a conclusion to the book by discussing the ways in which groups and individuals can create positive change toward alleviating poverty. The creation of the website, “Confronting Poverty: Tools for Understanding Economic Hardship and Risk,” is discussed, along with the poverty risk calculator. The role of social media is also discussed as a vehicle for raising awareness around the issues of poverty and inequality. The authors put forward that diagnosing the scope and cause of a problem is a first step toward creating change. A second step is using that diagnosis to shift the prevailing status quo mentality to one of social action. A third step is building the momentum to leverage a change in how the problem is addressed. The chapter offers several examples of how social and policy change have occurred over relatively short periods of time.