Hatch Invites Utahn to Testify on State's Successes in Fighting Poverty
Washington, D.C.—Utah’s efforts to relieve poverty by promoting self-sufficiency were brought front and center during a Senate hearing in the nation’s capital Thursday by Jon Pierpont, the Executive Director of Utah’s Department of Workforce Services. Pierpont appeared before the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Utah’s senior senator, Orrin Hatch, in a hearing on “Welfare and Poverty in America.”
“More and more Utahns are employed and businesses continue to grow and innovate in our state,” Pierpont said. “This has led to an economy recognized as one of the strongest in the nation. Our unemployment rate is 3.6 percent, and our job growth is a robust 3.9 percent, with job opportunities for Utahns of all levels of skill and training
Senator Hatch asked Pierpont about Utah’s Next Generation Kids Program, which the senator suggested could be a model for the country. The Utah program has been designed to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by working with children and parents together, focusing on four key areas: early childhood development, education, economic stability, and health. The program is part of the Intergenerational Poverty Mitigation Act passed by the Utah legislature in 2012.
“We have found that adults often cannot truly be successful when the needs of their children are not being met,” Pierpont said. "As a result, we have modified our program so that while we are engaging with parents to get them employed or increase their job skills, we are also ensuring that those parents are meeting the basic needs of their children.”
For Director Pierpont’s Full Submitted Testimony, click here.
