Poverty is a multi-dimensional issue, and tackling it requires a multi-dimensional approach. We have learned—and are beginning to embrace responsibility for—the many ways in which current systems were structured to reinforce racism, disparities, privilege, and oppression across population groups, and to per¬petuate the cycle of poverty. And we know that running even the most effective ‘safety net’ services, doing everything right, may serve to mitigate only the very deepest level of poverty, at best. It does not solve the problem.

Los Angeles County leadership is moving in a new direction—one that is proactive toward disrupting poverty and taking actions to stop people from sinking into poverty to begin with, instead of helping them only after they fall. The Poverty Alleviation Initiative (PAI) works with County, community, philanthropic, and other partners to address poverty and financial insecurity across the continuum: how to prevent, mitigate, and avoid re-entry into poverty.

To assist with this work, the PAI, in partnership with the Hilton Foundation, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School, Internal Services Department (ISD), and the Chief Information Office (CIO), has developed the State of Poverty Dashboard. Currently, the dashboard demonstrates how communities experience poverty at the neighborhood level using three measures of poverty: 100% of the Federal Poverty Level, 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, and 266% of the Federal Poverty Level. Future iterations of the dashboard will include the California Poverty Measure and a new local poverty measure that considers County specific economic factors and County administrative data.