Building Better Programs

Using Brain Science to Design New Pathways out of Poverty, from Crittenton Women’s Union’s Elizabeth Babcock

Crittenton Women’s Union’s Elizabeth Babcock explores the impact of factors such as social bias, persistent poverty and trauma on brain development and outlines the connection between how cognitive skills affected by persistent stress impact low-income adults’ ability to get ahead.

Included in this discussion are the effects of chronic stress on executive function skills and some recommendations of how to work with clients who may have compromised executive function skills due to the effects of poverty.