Earlier News Coverage

Few places are immune to poverty, but rural counties in southern and central Illinois struggle the most. And perhaps nowhere experiences these challenges as deeply as Cairo.

Medical expenses, not credit cards, are the No. 1 reason people file for bankruptcy. More than half of adult Americans (56 percent) have some medical debt, and nearly a quarter of the population (23 percent) owe more than $10,000.

Audra Wilson, president and CEO of the Shriver Center, presented on a panel about building working women’s power at the Women Employed annual fundraiser.

The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation to protect workers from unwanted or offensive political and religious speech unrelated to job performance. The bill had the support of a diverse group of stakeholders, including the Illinois AFL-CIO, Chicago Federation of Labor, Equality Illinois, Planned Parenthood, Citizen Action, Women Employed, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and Raise the Floor Alliance.

"The government becomes the caretaker, ignoring the fact that harm takes place when you remove a child from their parents,” says LaTanya Jackson Wilson, vice president of advocacy at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

"It's not insignificant that you have two (guaranteed income) pilots happening in the third-largest city and the second most populous county in the United States," says Audra Wilson, president and CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

"The word 'desert' is thrown out a lot. It doesn’t just mean that there is no supermarket there; it might also mean the quality of food that is being presented is of poor nutrition," said Audra Wilson, president and CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. She serves on the Illinois Commission End Hunger.

“Households with health insurance, and even middle income struggle underneath the weight of medical debt,” Audra Wilson, the president and CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, said. “It is crushing, it is massive, and that is why this initiative is so significant.”

Wendy Pollack, the director of the Women’s Law and Policy Initiative at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, thinks that Chicago’s new ordinance to guarantee living wages for service industry workers doesn't go far enough.

LaTanya Jackson Wilson, vice president of advocacy at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, discusses the impact that the elimination of the grocery tax would have on working families in Illinois.

Democratic lawmakers in Springfield have introduced legislation that would get rid of the lower minimum wage for the state’s tipped workers. Shriver Center President and CEO Audra Wilson explains how the Illinois law would help tipped workers and not overburden small business owners.

WTTW's Brandis Friedman talks to Audra Wilson, president and CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, about the 60th anniversary of the War on Poverty and the purpose of the 2024 Poverty Summit.