In honor of work of 2019 APA President Rosie Phillips Davis, PhD, and her commitment to addressing deep poverty, APA worked with congressional offices to introduce H.Res. 763opens in new window, a House resolution "Expressing Support for the Development of a National Strategic Plan to End Deep Poverty" on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019.
The resolution, which calls for a national strategic plan to end deep poverty, was based on Davis’s presidential initiative, which:
- Encouraged collaboration with experts in the psychological science of poverty to better understand the structural links between poverty and behavioral, mental and physical health challenges.
- Increased awareness of key stakeholders in Congress, in corporations and in communities of what psychological science tells us about deep poverty and about attitudes toward those who live in deep poverty.
- Called for psychology to have a greater role in addressing societal issues rooted in poverty by reshaping the narrative surrounding it and the policies that contribute to it.
- Urged psychologists to participate in a Five-Week Challenge, starting on Sept. 10, in concurrence with the U.S. Census Bureau annual release of the national poverty indicators, and ending on Oct. 10, World Poverty Day. APA gave interested psychologists tools to use to address deep poverty in their communities and beyond.
Davis, the fifth of 12 children born to Memphis, Tennessee, sharecroppers, grew up in deep poverty. She was the first person in her family to attend college, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and education, a master’s degree in counseling and guidance, and a PhD in counseling psychology. (Learn more about her experienceopens in new window.)
APA CEO Arthur C. Davis Jr., PhD, and Chief Advocacy Officer Katherine McGuire presented the resolution, signed by Rep. Serrano, to Davis on Dec. 14, 2019.
