HOW WE CAN ELIMINATE STRUCTURAL POVERTY: Kirby Edmonds at TEDx CornellU

This talk is about how poverty is structured in the Tompkins County economy and what it would take to eliminate structural poverty. It includes an analysis of both the poverty and criminal justice sectors of the economy and how they function as vehicles for keeping families in cyclical and generational poverty.

It also describes how through a "collective impact" approach to improving academic performance results and establishing a "jobs pipeline" targeted to low-income families and individuals we can eliminate structural poverty.

KIRBY EDMONDS is the managing partner of TFC Associates, a human relations training and consulting firm based in Ithaca. Kirby is a management consultant, mediator, and trainer with experience in the areas of team-building, supervisory issues, building and valuing diversity in the workplace, cultural competence, as well as managing conflict and stress in the work environment. He has several years' experience working on diversity in corporate, higher education, and public school environments. He has been a consultant to public--private partnerships throughout the country, a mediator and trainer of mediators for over 30 years.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)