New Brunswick, NJ
The Public Policy Program at Rutgers New Brunswick – Bloustein School has long been concerned with income inequality. The university undertook a number of initiatives in the previous year that will expand and highlight its work in this area beginning in 2016-17. Rutgers is proud to announce that as of September 2016, they are offering a new concentration in Social Justice Advocacy for the Master of Public Policy (MPP) students. With movements emerging across the nation concerned with social justice the school felt it could marshal its expertise in both social policy and in advocacy to give the future leaders of these movements the tools they need to make a real contribution to the battle against inequality.
On the research side, the efforts spread across the faculty and research centers. Most prominent among the research centers, the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development was awarded several grants in 2016 to focus on various aspects of inequality and social justice. The Heldrich Center is conducting a multi-year demonstration research project on strategies for long-term unemployed workers who are attempting to return to the labor market and avoid or transition out of poverty.
This project is funded by several private foundations and conducted in partnership with 25 organizations, including the New Jersey Anti-Poverty Network, United Way, and the AARP. With funding from the New Jersey Department of Education, the Heldrich Center is also doing work to help low-income high school students navigate their college and career decisions.
The Chase Foundation has funded the creation of a Heldrich Center program that helps students who are not attending college obtain better jobs through Career and Technical Education. Professor Dawne Mouzon has done an extraordinary number of research projects related to inequality. Professor Mouzon’s research addresses various aspects of racial/ethnic and gender inequality in both physical and mental health. She focuses on health and social justice issues affecting communities of African descent (both U.S.-born and foreign-born), which special emphases on racial discrimination, mass incarceration, and the criminal justice system.
