Episode # 12: Jedd Medefind on Complex Poverty
Welcome to our latest edition of WonkCast: People Power Policy.
We’ve been exploring policy debates about poverty, cash assistance, prevention, and child welfare involvement to get beyond the oversimplifications.
That debate often gets stuck because we rarely slow down to ask what we actually mean by a word like poverty, and what prevention can realistically address.
This week we have a conversation that adds another layer.
Jedd Medefind is the President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, and held a leadership role in the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Office during the George W. Bush administration.
Last year, Jedd Medefind wrote A Watershed Perspective for Child Welfare, outlining his idea of how “complex poverty” drives child welfare involvement.
He argues that material hardship is often intertwined with other forms of adversity, leading to more complex challenges that have no single solution.
His piece rejected simple narratives, grappling instead with what we actually mean by poverty, and what prevention can realistically address.
I had him onto the show to unpack these ideas, which invite us all to interrogate our own preferred simple solutions.
This conversation sharpened my thinking, and I expect it will sharpen yours.
Sponsorship Shoutout
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