Since I started writing Do-Gooder last summer, I've been looking in vain for a website with news about poverty. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of sites on green issues, but hardly anything on the day-to-day survival of human beings who don't have enough money to make ends meet. That makes sense: Going green is chic and relatively new; plus, there's money to be made from it. Poverty is an old problem, practically the opposite of fashionable. It got boring a long time ago.

Yesterday, the Annie E. Casey and Eos foundations launched Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, an effort to make poverty a big issue in the 2008 political campaign. Of course, poverty has long been candidate John Edwards' bailiwick, but Spotlight convinced 15 other presidential hopefuls to weigh in as well during video interviews with the foundations.

To me, that's the least interesting feature of the site. What politician won't promise to do something about poverty? All too often, in my community at least, those promises not only ring hollow, but even worse, they're the window dressing for the outright theft of resources earmarked for the poor. So I'm not impressed by a bunch of anti-poverty yapping.

What is helpful are other resources like community poverty data, information on local, state, and nationwide anti-poverty initiatives, and a wealth of academic research. Next, I'd like to see them add a follow-up section, to see what any of these pols and initiatives actually accomplish and I'd love to see them add a section on how individuals can play a role in fighting poverty.


Spotlight may not succeed in making fighting poverty sexy — okay, they're not even trying — but at least this is a start at sparking some public interest.