As part of our commitment to bridging social policy research, practice, and policy divides, the WCPC is proud to be hosting Roundtables on various substantive topics. We believe that policy-relevant research benefits from ongoing dialogues between scholars and practitioners with different types of expertise about policy designs, their delivery, and outcomes. These quarterly Roundtable discussions provide an opportunity for practitioners to think about knowledge needs beyond the day-to-day, and for researchers to think about on-the-ground and political realities that provide context for their scholarship. We also hope that these meetings will help foster relationships that might lead to future collaborations. 

We launched two practitioner-scholar Roundtables in February, 2012: 

• The WCPC Roundtable on Asset Building and Poverty, co-chaired by WCPC Affiliate Marieka Klawitter and Dave Sieminski, Managing Director of Express Advantage, a Seattle-based financial capability builder; and
• The WCPC Roundtable on Housing and Poverty, co-chaired by WCPC Affiliate Suzanne Withers and Sarah Lewontin, Executive Director at Bellwether Housing.
  

For more information about the Roundtables, please contact Shannon Harper at shannonh@uw.edu.