Newark, New Jersey, population 277,000, is a great city with massive problems. Newark’s poverty rate is a staggering 25% versus Seattle, WA, with more than double the population but less than half the poverty rate at 11%. Why do some areas have high poverty rates while others do not?
In 2010, the FBI reported that Newark had the 8th highest murder rate in the US. Newark’s schools are failing with a high school graduation rate of 22%. Why do cities with high poverty typically have high crime rates and low performing schools?
Asking these questions and finding the answers is why Newarkers/filmmakers Marylou & Jerome Bongiorno, with funding from the New Jersey Council on the Humanities and support from other sponsors, created the “Newark Poverty Reduction Conference" hosted by Rutgers-Newark on April 6, 2011. The event convened scholars, in a public forum, to begin the dialogue to tackle poverty reduction in NJ's inner cities, with a focus on Newark.
Clips produced by Emmy-nominated, award-winning filmmakers Marylou & Jerome Bongiorno, Bongiorno Productions.
