West Coast Poverty Center

The University of Washington, the West Coast Poverty Center, and the Seattle community offer many opportunities for students who are interested in poverty and social policy in the U.S. to learn more about it and to get involved in solutions to poverty in the community.

The West Coast Poverty Center regularly offers graduate courses in poverty, including our biweekly Seminar Series on Poverty and Policy, which attracts doctoral and professional students as well as faculty from sociology, economics, public affairs, geography, social work, urban studies, history, public health, nursing, and other fields.  Students can enroll in the series for credit, or simply attend.  More information about the Seminar Series and other WCPC-sponsored courses is available on our Studying Poverty at UW page, along with a listing of other poverty-related graduate and undergraduate courses that are most frequently offered on campus.  

Doctoral students who are writing dissertations related to poverty can explore WCPC’s Dissertation Fellowship program and previous fellowship awards, which support doctoral research on poverty-related topics.

Faculty Affiliates of the Center study aspects of poverty from a wide range of disciplines and specialties.  To learn more about faculty specializations, visit our Faculty Affiliates page. 
For a good introductory overview of poverty trends and current data both nationally and in the west coast states, visit the Poverty Basics section of the website.  This section also includes links to online poverty mapping and interactive tools elsewhere on the web. 

To learn more about opportunities for volunteering and service learning, see Getting Involved.