National Conference to Highlight Project on Welfare Reform

January-February 1994

WASHINGTON, D.C.—May 19-20 are the dates for an unusual conference to be held here in the nation's capital at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel (very close to Washington's national airport). The conference begins with a reception at 5:00 p.m. Thursday evening and concludes with a dinner program on Friday. A brochure with attached registration form will be mailed to readers of the Public Justice Report in February.

Seeking a new vision by which to reorient welfare policy, the Center for Public Justice invites the public to this event to consider proposals being developed by its project on Welfare Responsibility.

Following a keynote presentation of the project's overall argument for a new approach, the conference will feature five panels to debate various aspects of that approach and the vision behind it. Among the panelists will be some of the project's core team members: Charles L. Glenn, Jr. (Boston University), Gina Barclay McLaughlin (University of Michigan), John Mason (Gordon College), Lawrence Mead (Harvard University), Max L. Stackhouse (Princeton Theological Seminary), Mary Stewart van Leeuwen (Eastern College), and Bob Goudzwaard (Free University of Amsterdam).

Additional panel participants will be drawn from government, the churches, service providers, policy think tanks, and universities. A few of the additional speakers are Jean Bethke Elshtain (Vanderbilt University), W Wilson Goode (former Mayor of Philadelphia), Glenn Loury (Boston University), Stephen Charles Mott (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), Marvin Olasky (University of Texas), James Shopshire (Wesley Theological Seminary), and Ronald J. Sider (president, ESA).

"Persistent poverty," says Stanley W. Carlson-Thies, the project's director, "represents more than an economic crisis on the part of individuals; it has a social context and a historical dimension, and it must he addressed as a moral issue. The goal of anti-poverty efforts should be to restore people and social institutions to the fulfillment of their responsibilities. Government welfare policy," he argues, "should encourage and not displace restorative action on the part of churches, non-profit organizations, and other social institutions."

Two dozen papers have been commissioned for the conference, many of which will be edited afterward for book publication. The papers will be available for a nominal charge at the conference. The project's central "vision essay," which will serve as the focal point of the panel debates, will be released at the conference and each conferee will receive a copy. A pamphlet summarizing the main points of that essay will be sent to registrants ahead of time along with summary abstracts of the two dozen background papers being prepared for the conference.